MITNA Exec Meeting

Description

Notes by: Patrick Lam and Iason Chatzakis

Attendance: Patrick Lam, Ben Zeskind, Frank Dabek, Iason Chatzakis, Alvar Saenz-Otero, Dwight Brown.

MITNA meeting

Decision taken: Next MITNA meeting (including new Executive Council elections) will take place Thursday September 22^nd.

Notes: Originally we decided on Monday, September 19; but on Dwight's advice we'll go with Thursday, September 22 at 5:00PM.  We need to put up notice at the latest on September 14, and we also need to make sure that we get quorum. [update (PL, 09/02): move meeting to 5:30PM.]

X-HEC Race in France, May 2006

Notes: Olivier is in touch with X-HEC people for planning and details. We would like to have a motivated and trained offshore racing crew ready for for the X-HEC race. People interested in participating should be encouraged to train. We thought of a few ways for doing that.

Practicing for the X-HEC race:

• Rhodes 19 match racing on the river. There's a lot of similarities and practically just a scale difference between racing a keelboat like Rhodes 19 (with a spinnaker) and a JOD 35 around a windward-leeward course. We could get out in two Rhodes (total 6-8 people, about the crew of the JOD) and race on the river for practice and teamwork. Iason and Alvar will try to set up the spinnaker gear on two of the Rhodes. What is needed is:
• • Two end-fittings for the spinnaker poles
  • Mast pole attachment
  • Topping lifts
  • Jib patches so they don't get chafed by mast fittings
• IOD, Etchells racing etc. People interested in X-HEC could also try to get out on the keelboat racing circuit in Boston and Marblehead — it's great practice. Iason and Fran could possibly help with this. Classes with symmetrical chutes like Etchells and J24's are ideal.

Helping new MIT sailors improve their skills (Office Hours)

Notes: For starters, we need a better name than 'office hours'. Frank might be able to help with this.

Everyone agreed that MIT sailors must be encouraged to improve their skills beyond the beginner level. People usually take the 3 classes, become capable of more-or-less handling the boat in light wind, but do not advance much from there.

We figured a way to do that is to be on the dock and when someone makes a mistake, help them and in the meantime show them the right way of doing what was done wrong. Pat talked with Ryan who actually does this very often. If done right this could be beneficial to the general average level of MIT sailors.

Also, the provisional class was a great initiative in this direction - Melitta could give us some feedback on how it went.

End-of-year-party

Notes: Melitta usually takes care of this (thanks Melitta!)

Harbor Sails

Notes: Offering sails out to Boston harbor with Rhodes sounds very good. This could be done on weekends in order to start in the morning and have many hours of daylight. Two or three boats could go out. Picnics and fun 'races' would go well with this.

We need two things:

• Skippers. People with some offshore experience, who can read a chart and know collision avoidance would be good. Most of the MITNA execs fill the requirements. Some training is needed, mainly how to take down and up again the Rhodes mast. It would be best if interested skippers went out once with people who do this often and get the idea. Frank will ask Alex McVay and Iason has asked Melitta about this.
• Outboard motor. If we have one small outboard (like the one on Aleida), we can use it on the one Rhodes 19 that does have an outboard support. This boat could then tow two more boats.

MIT web address

Notes: The idea is that the natural address for MITNA is web.mit.edu/sailing. After some negotiations with Athena by Alvar and Pat, we're getting the /sailing and also keeping the current /mit-sailing point to it for 6-12 months.

Organizers

Questions about this event should be directed to the organizer(s): MITNA Exec