Dear A class sailors worldwide ,

As many of you already noticed last season, a lot of discussion has going on about the 'curved boards'  issue  and the the hydrofoil rule in general .

During the  World General Meeting  at the Belmont A Class Worlds in January, the decision made was that the Hydrofoils Comission is in charge to provide the exact wording of a rule for a  CLASS BALLOT according to our Constitution, Point 11.

THIS MEANS that every member of a National A Class Association , which is automatically a member of the IACA, CAN VOTE on this issue .

A commission, under the  management of Andrew Landenberger ( AUS) and consisting of the following members:

Murray Phillpott ( NZ), Mike Drummond (NZ),Luc Dubois (SUI),Thomas Paasch (DEN) , John Goldsmith(AUS) and Pieterjan Dwarshuis(NED) has spent hundreds of e-mails to come up with the final wording of a NEW RULE.

EVERY A CLASS SAILOR  WORLDWIDE CAN VOTE     'YES'     or     'NO'    on this issue .

A majority of 2/3 of votes in favour is needed to approve the new rule .

In the attached PDF you find the NEW RULE PROPOSAL. In red the rule changes. Please note that rule 8, known as  “Hydrofoils are not permitted” has been deleted because it is almost impossible to measure such a generic specification. The aim of the new rule is to achieve the same result.

The second file is an EXPLANATION DOCUMENT of the proposal, written by the commission. This will help you all to understand how the new rule will control the 'hydrofoil effect'. You may also find it translated in Italian. A German translation will follow. Translations in other languages are welcome.

Luc Dubois originally wrote this explanation, and it has been finalised by the commission, with good inputs from Mike Drummond, Landy and Thomas Paasch in particular .

EVERY member is asked to VOTE on this Ballot , by SIMPLY  sending an e-mail to hydrofoilballot@a-cat.org

with :   'YES'   to approve or    'NO' to refuse   , together with your name  and sailnumber !

The deadline for voting in May 31st
Pieterjan Dwarshuis (NED) is the Returning Officer. He will forward all votes to Pieter Saarberg (IACA Secretary) and to me to confirm the ballot rusult.

I want to thank once more all members of the Hydrofoils Commission for the hard work done and for the huge amount of hours they spent on this subject. At this stage the choice depends on you and on all sailors only.

Best regards

Stefano Sirri ,

President IACA