ISMA News - Association Suisse 6mJI

6
President’s Address
I have now been in office for some nine months and am
pleased to be able to report some considerable progress
in a number of those administrative areas which I had
identified in my last Address in the previous Bulletin.
Perhaps the most interesting project for everyone is the
production at last, and indeed for the first time ever,
of the full “Master List” of all registered Six-Metres
in the official fleets around the World, together with
each countries’ officials, which you will find printed
at the back of this issue. This was more difficult and
took much longer to prepare than was initially foreseen,
more especially since it early on became quite
clear that only a very few of the major fleets actually
had their own Fleet Lists correct and up-to-date. Indeed,
initially only Brazil and Finland’s lists were as
required and even with Brazil we got a late name correction.
In several cases, Fleets came back to ask if we
could let them know which boats they had and, in two
cases, Australia and the Netherlands, we actually had
to await their first ever AGMs before they could form
their fleets.
However, I am delighted to tell you that we now have
some ten official fleets in being and what is more, since
the formation of the first ever Australian fleet, we have
fleets of over six boats on three continents and thus at
last once again qualify to be members of ISAF. Sadly,
up to this moment we have no one who has been prepared
to take on the formation of organized fleets in
several countries, in particular Italy and Norway, where
there are known to be at least twelve boats in each
country in racing, or at least sailing condition. However,
the La Scala brothers in Italy, who have restored
and are racing Bau-Bau, are hoping to take up the challenge.
I am certain that as a result more owners will
ISMA News International 6mJI Association
start to take an interest and the fleets will grow. At this
time we have some 282 boats ‘in class’ in organized
fleets around the World, of which records in previous
bulletins show that at least 122 are racing or have been
racing very recently. Research by Basil Carmody has
now produced a list of some 308 known Classics in
existence which, with the 101 known Moderns, gives
us a figure of 409 Six-Metres in existence around the
World; a tremendous increase in numbers.
A corollary to this research and Master List is the production
by Tim Russell, our Hon. Treasurer, not only
of the ISMA Accounts for the last three years but what
also appears to be the first ISMA Finance Paper, at least
in memory. As many of you will know, ISMA has for
long been in effect financed by individuals, in particular
Beat Furrer, who has taken most of the financing of
the Bulletin directly upon himself and without whom
there would be no Bulletin. This paper proposes that,
as well as a reasonable Membership Fee for all those
boats which take part in international racing, there
should be, in addition, an Associate Membership and
fee, for all those boats which are registered and draw
assistance from ISMA or for any other interested parties.
It proposes quite a low fee, based on that for those
Associate Memberships already in existence in several
countries, and which should not put too much of a
strain on you.
As I have previously reported, the updated Rules were
submitted to ISAF for ratification, to ensure that we
are an official International Class. However in certain
cases they did not wholly fulfill ISAF requirements and
furthermore it came to light that there were a number
of additional Rules which had been approved at various
AGMs but not picked up. The newly revised Rules are