A Message from the President.

I hope you are all well and just wanted to keep you upto date. Last year before the 2014 Worlds in New Zealand we ran a vote to ask if we, The UK A-Class association would want to remove rule 8 which would allow the development of easier foiling, the majority of BACCA supported the advancement of the A-Class and agreed to support the removal R8.

Due to much larger A-Class associations around the World and several proposals on changing R8, the 2/3 majority required, removal didn’t happen.

For those new to this debate please see the limitation of R8 below which was meant to stop the development of a foiling A-class, this hasn’t happened and work arounds have been put in place by manufactures to allow some form of foiling.

Rule 8:

8.1 No part of each hull or hull appendages below the waterline shall be less than 0.75 meters from the centre line.

8.2 Movable and retractable hull appendages shall be inserted from the top or be capable of being fully retractable into the hull.

As chairman of the BACCA, my reason for supporting the up and coming vote for removing R8 put forward by USA, Canada was based on last years vote and I want to make sure I represent the UK when I turn up to the 2015 Worlds in Punta Ala and would like to know if you still support removing R8. If we find in a few years time that it has effected the class in a dangerous way, Then we can always vote to re-strict the class again but personally feel at the rate of development out in the catamaran world, we will be enjoying our sailing even more.

Rationale to remove Rule 8:

• The rule was an anti-foiling rule and has proven ineffective at preventing foiling

• The rule is perceived as creating additional expense to retrofit older boats to foil

• The rule unnecessarily constrains the open development nature of the A-Class catamaran and therefore may lead to out-dated or sub-optimal designs in the future. Many other new catamaran designs are developing foiling solutions without rule 8 constraints. Removing rule 8 will ensure the A-Class continues to be state of the art in high performance sailing.

I trust I have your support but feel free to contact me.

Best regards and happy sailing.

Struan

BACCA Chairman.

FYI: Behind the scenes there’s now support from many of the original 2014 A-class association objectors, They have seen the development and the where catamaran racing is heading, please see latest post from catsailingnews.

struan@struan-wallace.co.uk