South Atlantic Yachting Association General Meeting
February 2nd, 2013
Commodore Hank Goodman called the meeting to order. He welcomed new and old
faces and provided a moment of silence in memory of Ronnie Taylor from JIYC,
Diane Ross from LNYC, and Milbrey Gnann from BYSC, members lost this past year.
JR. REPORTS by Robert Key: Participation was just about level this year. Plan to
meet to set the 2013 schedule today. Greg Fisher and gang are hosting a sailing
clinic today-plan to put 420’s on the water. Other information: Beaufort Yacht
Sailing Club once again hosts SAYRA junior challenge. 60-70 kids participated this
yr in a one-day event. It’s gotten very popular. Beaufort won it this year. SAYRA
youth have had a real upsurge in activity and participation, not only just in regional
but in national and international events. Thanks to Martine Zurinskas and Carrie
Rhode and many others for getting folks to raise their sites beyond the southeastern
region. Last but not least it’s a pleasure to announce Lisa Mazio and Boo Carraway
as the Junior committee chairs next year and thanks for all of your support,
including Robert Key for a great job done.
HELEN HANLEY INVESTMENT OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE by Robert Key: This
committee includes Jim Roberts, Ryan Hamm, and Ken Gorni. It was created to take
back investment portfolios handled by US Sailing and bring it here locally. Started
off by developing an investment policy governing the funds. We want to grow the
fund responsibly with a relatively conservative approach of half stocks and half
bonds and measure the performance over a three-year period. Plan to use mutual
funds. We are going to allow up to 20% exposure to international stocks. The
bonds need to be government bonds or investment grade corporate bonds.
Investment decisions are going to be delegated to the Investment Oversight
Committee in order to make decision-making simplified, straightforward,
accountable and transparent. I report the holdings quarterly to the commodore of
SAYRA and then also to the other members of the committee. As of year-end we
have $189,692 in the investment funds. We also have a small pot of cash in a
checking account at TD Bank that’s managed by the treasurer to handle daily
checking account activities and disbursement funds for expense reimbursement.
The long-term investment tool shows that 59% of the fund is in stocks, 45% is in
bonds and the balance is in cash. The funds are split up: 45% short-term bond,
11% mid-cap growth, 16% international growth, 33% dividend growth equity. All
are Vanguard funds. You can always get the information off the Internet any time
you want to find out what’s going on. As far as Performance on the year: the
portfolio was up 8.6%. Our benchmark was up 9.9%, which is slightly disappointing
but the return softness was due to some under performance on the dividend growth
fund. This is not a surprise because there was a great disparity between dividends
and stocks in non-lower dividend paying stocks in the year 2012. It’s starting to
turn around so I expect to see that reverse itself this year. We started out at
$170,000 in October of 2011 and we’re up to $189,000. We really haven’t had to
take any money out of the fund. I’d like to thank Jim and Ken for work on this too.
ONE DESIGN TROPHIES by Hank Goodman: There’s a FedEx truck out there
somewhere with The One Design trophies on it. If you have a fleet within SAYRA
and you will keep records and keep up with a regatta series through SAYRA, we will
award a trophy for your fleet at the end of the year.
SECRETARY’S REPORT by Dawn Truog: As far as membership go, we have 32
adult members, 6 junior members, and 39 families. There are 29 Clubs and 13
associates, including NC Sailing and Rowing. Per Hank Goodman: our numbers are
up in our general membership. Everybody is encouraged to join-you get a handbook
you can use to reach out and touch anybody in this room, which is wonderful.
APPEALS COMMITTEE REPORT by Edith Collins:
The Appeals Committee members consisted of Edith Collins, Eric Rasmussen, Bob
Bowden, JD Rosser, and Means Davis.
Let me start out by saying that Appeal 104 as published in the US Sailing Appeals
Book came from our decision from last year regarding Interested Parties at the
Firecracker Regatta at Savannah Yacht Club.
Yet again, the Collins Curse prevailed and we had another bumper crop of Appeal
requests. This time they were both from Charleston.
The first Appeal came from a CORA race and was based on collision at the start of a
race between a boat racing and a boat not racing. Mr. Bowden was an interested
party in that he crews on a boat in the same fleet as one of the oats and recused
himself. JD Rosser was on the panel of the protest being appealed and was recused
as well. We used a three-person committee to hear the case. We concluded that
both boats broke rules and disqualified the boat racing from that race and the boat
not racing from the race nearest in time to the race in which the incident occurred.
Eric was the lead judge on this hearing.
The next appeal request came rom the Viper Class at Charleston Race Week. During
the first race of their series, a mark moved. The race continued and all boats
finished. Redress was requested and the race was abandoned ashore. Redress was
then requested by another boat due to the race being abandoned. The Protest
Committee for the second hearing initially reinstated the race and granted redress.
Upon further review, the Protest Committee re-opened the hearing and determined
that they had not considered the full consequences of the mark moving as per RRS
32.1 and decided that the abandonment of the race stood. The boat that requested
redress in the second hearing appealed the decision.
Most of the members of the Appeals Committee were on one of the two panels or
were consulted regarding the hearing. Eric served on Race Committee on another
course, so he was the sole surviving Appeals Committee member. He gathered up
another set of committee members to hear the appeal. The decision of the Protest
Committee was upheld. The aggrieved party appealed the SAYRA Appeals
Committee decision to the US Sailing Appeals Committee.
After several months, the US Sailing Appeals Committee upheld the decision of the
SAYRA Appeals Committee.
I want to thank all of the members of the Committee. I want to particularly thank
Eric for his wisdom and perseverance.
Respectfully submitted,
Edith H. Collins
SAILORS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS by David Hazeltine: It was a great year with the
Special Olympic sailing program regionally and locally. Had 7th annual open regatta
at JIYC last June, had 35 teams with over 70 sailors that participated in 4 states. Had
many new sailors and some unified partners as well as picked up some very key
partners and corporate sponsors. The Rotary Club, Charleston Breakfast, along with
Spirit Line cruises took us on and provided a harbor cruise in early May. The Rotary
Club and Spirit Line donated all but a token amount to the donation to Fort Sumter
for the indoor SO program. Also, we picked up additional support from Piggly
Wiggly corporate. Local law enforcement agencies and the Coast Guard have started
to contribute more in terms of service support and also free boats they find floating
out in the ocean. This year we’ll be planning our open regatta the first weekend in
June on James Island and a second event at Lake Norman in the 3rd weekend in June.
We’ve benefitted from a tremendous donation from Charleston Race Week and
CORA. The rotary club continues their sponsorship and anticipates another harbor
cruise in the spring. The program continues to grow and we’re looking for
opportunities to help other clubs initiate these programs because we have a model
now that works. Thank you for all your support!
TRAINING: Our training coordinator is out of town today.
PHRF: Eddie is busy this morning so is not here. Per Hank Goodman: Last year we
ran the SAYRA PHRF keelboat championship out of the College of Charleston with
J22s. Seven clubs participated. Randy Drafts was our PRO. Plan for larger boat
PHRF race for SAYRA this year.
US SAILING CHAMPIONSHIP by Brian Swan: SAYRA is one of 4 associations
within area D. We have a special agreement among those associations that we’ll
rotate the area D eliminations for all the different ladder events leading up to the
championships for US sailing. Last year we were supposed to do area D eliminations
for match racing but it didn’t happen. Our brethren association, Dixie, ignored the
fact that it was our turn. They had some problems with our race management, etc.,
and just held their own thing instead. This year in May, thanks to Martine arranging
this over a year ago, we are responsible for the single-handed championships
elimination. One male and one female will go to the finals, I think in New Jersey.
Per Martine: US Sailing is looking for a final host for 2015 and 2016. There are 3
events that need to come and swing through the SE and you have to submit bids
now to get an event in 2016. I have the event bid package available online.
2016 is the US sailing youth championships, a large resume-only event. At least 160
youth and it’s the cream of the crop of the country. Many kids apply year after year
and never get in so this is the best of the best. It’s a large event with multiple
racecourses required. It’s a big Charleston race week for kids. And housing.
2015: they are looking for final host for Sears, Bemis and Smythe, which is singlehanded, double-handed, and triple-handed or quad, depending on the boat selection.
So lightning’s, thistles, 420’s, laser-radials.
2015: the single-handed champs are also looking for a swing through the SE.
Those 2 events have to be held in the summer towards the beginning of August/end
of July. The single-handed champ is an adult event. We do have some youth but
they have to be older than 16. That is lasers and radials with no more than 30-35
boats. That event can be held in Sept/early Oct.
Hosting 2 out of 3 of these events would be realistic…we’re looking for bids now so
see me and I’ll tell you how to do it and help you with the bid process. I’ve reviewed
hundreds of bids at this point and know what works and what doesn’t. I’ll guide you
through what event works for your yacht club and what makes sense for your
venue. Am happy to help.
SCHEDULING by Hank Goodman: We need your schedule for this year, 2013, and
if you’ve got it, for 2014. Let’s go ahead and get it on the books now so we can get
them on the web to see if we can get more people to your regattas.
HELEN HANLEY REPORT by Ryan Hamm: I’m in my 4th year of 5 as the chairman
for the HH fund. Todd is in his 1st year of 5. This yr he’ll be kind of taking over
Eddie’s watch. Next year he’ll be doing all the work. The HH fund is inside of
SAYRA. Funds are paid out for people who need it to travel to events that are US
sailing championships. There are around 26 of them. For example, it’s very
expensive to go to San Francisco with a group of 4 to sail in the Sears Cup. This year
we were lucky enough to have Joe David and his crew from Lake Norman and
Raleigh, I think, go to St. Pete and won the Area D semi-finals and then trucked to
College of Charleston, borrowed J22s to practice on to get ready for their event.
They went all the way to San Francisco. We spent around two or three thousand
towards that trip. It sure was nice to be able to help them out to do that. They are a
bunch of juniors from our SAYRA program. Also, I believe Kelly Millican and Darby
Redaway from Lake Norman/Lake Lanier took a van and put a couple of lasers on
top and drove to Chicago. They collected money from the HH fund. They had a blast
and the moms had a good time and we reimbursed them for their mileage and
registration, charter boats, etc. We brought in somewhere around $14 or $15,000
and spent about the same, so it’s an even year. This year, unlike last year, almost
everyone was a junior. It’s exciting to send that many kids to different places. This
year there was a lot of west coast sailing so those families need that money to be
able to go to regattas that far out of town.
This year we added in the ability for you to have a training event where you run it,
organize it and invite the kids from all over SAYRA, and the fund is there to pick up
any losses you might have. This year we tested it. James Island Yacht Club held it,
had around 60 kids with level 2 instructors, which are very expensive. Clubs might
be worried that they can’t afford it and it might be a bust. The HH fund wants y’all
to do it and try it. We ended up not losing money so the HH fund spent $500
because we broke a rudder and rented some boats and that was it. That was the
only extra expenses that we had. So you, as a club, have that opportunity. On the
SAYRA website there’s a HH memorial fund section which gives you the guidelines,
what you can do to get money from the HH fund. Tell your members! It’s available
now for the clubs for training. It’s available for level one instruction so you can send
your kids to get level one training and get some of the money back. It does a lot for
SAYRA and it’s our biggest fund by far. Keep having your clubs donate money to us
for this fund! It’s money well spent-it’s putting this area on the map because what
these kids are doing in college, etc. is amazing. If your club is doing a training here,
contact Carrie or me, Ryan Hamm, and we’ll let you know what the process is and
try to help you do it.
**HELEN HANLEY REPORT by Ken Gorni, Treasurer: (See attached HH
Memorial Fund Statement Of Financial Position-Cash Basis and Statement of
Activities-Cash Basis) Donations to the fund clubs and individuals were $14,979 in
2012. Ryan and Todd dispersed $14,200. Income was $745. The year before it was
a loss of $12. We’re trying to give folks what we take in. The fund is designed for US
sailing, championship events and training.
The Balance sheet bottom line (again, see attached) is the fund increased $15,000
over the past year from $191,000 to $207,000. Most of that came from the
appreciation in the investment fund that Robert talked about a little bit earlier.
Question from the floor: “There must be a point where the committee decides that
the capital appreciation is sufficient for the funds to start dispersing out of the
assets… Is the $200,000 mark that number or is there an idea in mind that you want
so much in the investment portfolio before you start spending money out of that?”
Response by Ken Gorni: We haven’t talked about that but we would need another
digit, another comma, to that amount. Hopefully the investments keep doing like
they are and that’s great. It will fund everything just through the investment. The
fact is, though, we want to spend the money. We want you guys to give the money to
club members to use it. We want people to be in the US sailing championships! Last
year was our biggest spending of HH. That was a huge year! Last year, by the way,
we received $2,500 in memory of Diane Ross-If that hadn’t happened we would’ve
lost about $2,000-$3,000 in the funds.
Comment from the floor: “I don’t see how we can afford not keeping that funded,
whatever the figure is, rather than spend it down. If we spend it down, we’re not
going to make the money.” Response from Ken Gorni: Exactly! That’s what we’re
doing. We need you guys to put money in. We want to take out that amount and the
investment is just gravy for now.
COMMUNICATIONS by Sarah Ashton: Communications includes our website, our
Facebook, and yearbook. If every chairman of each committee would send me stuff
we’d put it up on the website but be careful what you send because big brother is
watching. We’ve had to take some stuff down because we were not supposed to
post it. If you get something from another website or somebody like US Sailing, for
example, please make sure that it’s okay that we post it on our site and not have to
direct them to their site. But send me articles, pictures, anything you want. If you
have an article from a specific committee, like One Design, send it to the One Design
chairman and he’ll send it to me. Scheduling and notice of races goes right to Hank
and he’ll send it to me
Facebook is staying current. There are 7-8 people that post as the SAYRA author
and anyone else can also post on the Facebook page. There’s a new post at least 2-4
times per week all about different things, this meeting, who’s doing well with
SAYRA, just very valuable information. It gets a lot of hits.
The yearbook is so valuable. It’s worth $25 but you only have to pay $15 this year.
It’s got everybody’s name, all the club contacts, just a ton of information that
everybody should get.
Mike Palazzo does the CORA website and is giving a presentation on how to do club
websites today.
**US SAILING COUNCIL OF SAILING ASSOCIATIONS by Martine Zurinskas (see
attached report-Regional Sailing Association Chair Report): I am the SAYRA
representative to Area D to US Sailing. I was able to represent SAYRA at the annual
meeting in San Francisco in Oct. I attended 20 meetings and got to tour the Oracle
facility. They did the presentation on the independent studies they did on the 2
boats-the Farallon crash and the other one that was off the southern coast of CA and
if you haven’t had a safety review at your club if what would happen if a front or
squall came through you need to do it. What the clubs took away from that is that
one of the clubs-St Frances didn’t have radio contact with all the boats out there.
Every club could do an evaluation in your what-if situations. Make sure you do the
study so you don’t get caught in the same situation. The US Sailing site has the
reports on there and they have some safety at sea seminars that can be offered.
Columbia Sailing Club is hosting a national Championship Final in October 2013. If
they reach out for support from the sailing community please offer back to them.
This is 20 boats and you have to rotate boats between every race. It’s over 3 days.
It’s a lot of motorboats and manpower to make this happen so please offer your
support.
There is still an area representative, Mike Dawson. It is just not going to be a
director position it is a coordinator. I work with Mike to make sure the
championships are done. The new CSA isn’t a council anymore. We are committee
within another committee. We have a highly organized YRA. Area D has done what
18% of the total US sailing membership. We’re highly organized. When you are
dealing with 11 other YRA’s that have no representation and don’t do anything and
it’s like pulling teeth to get a name. You struggle with that. It did need to be refined
and streamlined. The end result of the reorg will be positive for sailors.
The annual meeting next yr. is in Oct in Captiva Island. They’re having a leadership
summit Feb 5th-8th in 2014. It’ll be a combination of the one design symposium,
NSPF and a yacht club summit. If your yacht club wants to get new ideas this’ll be a
good idea to learn. They’re expecting 500 people and for it to sell out.
JUDGES by Sarah Ashton: We have 13 certified judges, 1 certified umpire, 4
certified club judges, 2 SAYRA judges and 4 judges in training. We need more! If
you’re interested see Steve Symanski or me. You start out as a judge in training.
You have a mentor. You become a certified club judge and you work your way up.
It’s a lot of fun.
There were 4 rule seminars this past year. We have 1 scheduled for Feb at Carolina
Sailing Club. There are 2 workshops scheduled for area D.-one in March in Severn
Yacht Club and the other one is in April at Columbia Sailing Club. It brushes you up
on the rules. Currently we have 2 documents on the SAYRA judges’ forum webpage
that highlight the changes in the new rules. One’s a power point and the other one is
a downloadable document.
JUDGE IN TRAINING PROGRAM by Steve Symanski: We’re really in need of
judges. Over the last year we have had 4 people graduate as club judges: Mike
Palazzo, Jolene Rasmussen, Paul Lenard, and Robert Kinzer (sp?). Each of the new
club judges is aspiring to move up to the US Sailing judges. We also have 2 people
involved in the judges training, Bud Sweet (sp?) from Lake Murray Sailing Club and
Lynn Swan. I’ll be doing 2 rules seminars in the Lake Murray area Feb 8th at
Columbia Sailing Club and one at the Lake Murray Sailing Club, the date yet to be
determined.
RACE MANAGEMENT by JD Rosser: We are in the middle of an advanced race
management seminar at Hobcaw Yacht Club. CORA donated a nice sum of money to
make it happen. Hank Stuart and Wayne Gresch are 2 of the best presenters I’ve
ever seen.
We’ve had a couple of one-day seminars, one in Beaufort, and one in Lake Norman.
We did have one that focused on the race rules as it applies to race management and
Oriental that Ken Small put together. We are supposed to help the clubs get better
race management, better judges, anything we can do to help you, let us know. Last
year we had the club judge seminar at the SAYRA annual meeting. This year we are
doing the Advance Race Management Seminar. Next year we’ll probably go back to
the rules side and do something on the judges’ side.
If you’ve got something you’d like to put on the website concerning race
management… Appendix L-take a look at what it says in that guide-standardized
sailing instructions.
TREASURERS REPORT by Ken Gorni: The income statement: Revenue-$16,000,
compared to last year of $11,000. The big difference is some funds we received
from CORA of $5,000. Administrative expenses-of the $16,000 that we get we spend
$2300 on the administration side. Everything else goes to program expenses (ie.
Trophies, committee expenses, area D). Our expenses for 2012 were about $800
more than last year. The biggest part of that was we had gotten a year behind on
paying the Webmaster stipend so we had a double expense. We’re now caught up.
Otherwise the expenses are in line with the year before. Our biggest other expense
is this meeting which is an important part of SAYRA. Last year we spent $1800 on
our meeting. Income: $6800 in the black. Balance sheet: total assets of $44, 700,
liabilities of $3,000-money we received in Dec for this meeting so net assets or
equity of $41,700.
OLD BUSINESS by Hank Goodman: None
NEW BUSINESS: We’re having our 3rd annual Leukemia Cup on June 8th and 9th at
(?Ruby Dunes ?) of Oriental. The first year we had it we raised about $85,000 for
the Leukemia Society. Last year we raised over $106,000 for the Leukemia Society.
We had 30 some odd boats participating in the races but there were probably 45-50
boats that registered.
Per Hank Goodman: I ask you guys to go back home and tell people what you did
at the meeting this weekend. I had someone tell me there is a disconnect between
SAYRA and this meeting and the clubs. Tell people what you’re learning. You get a
book that’s invaluable. If you’ve got a problem at your club I guarantee you that
some other club is having the same problem. One of the meeting’s today is the
Commodore’s Roundtable. You don’t have to be a commodore to come. We talk
about some of our club problems, such as membership. We’ll kick around some
ideas. What you’ll gain from that meeting is a name, a face, and some contact
information. Hank then reviewed the meetings for the afternoon and encouraged
people to fill out the survey. He also reminded members to attend the cocktail party
that evening.
HH Challenge by Dick McGillvry: Individuals and Clubs made pledges exceeding
$10,000.
The meeting was adjourned.