In attendance: Carla, JJ Pagac, Andrew Bartling, Nick Grundl, Neil Morton, Kirsten Reeser, Katlyn Putney, Sam Grosnick, Phil Morely, Andrew Fox, Kelly Kramer, Kyle Harris-Smith, Becky Zarling, Joe Ricker, Matt Dwyer, Paul Hanson, Lou Reed, Pete, Nick Burger
Motion to Approve Last Meetings Minutes
· Motioned by Nick Burger, Seconded by Andrew Bartling
· All approved - passed
Call for New Business
· NONE
Kiting Policy
· Help approved winter kiting instructors build skills need to provide top level instruction
o Intended ONLY for hired kiting instructors who have been approved by a senior kiting instructor – no other members or instructors are allowed to check out kits
o Kites must be checked out online – only designated kites can be checked out and have to be back within 24 hrs
o Kites may only be flown at U-Bay Fields (must have MedFlight agreement on person) and Vilas, Warner, and Reindahl Parks. NOT ALLOWED ON ICE!
o Kites may be flown in 15 mph wind or less
o In the even of catastrophic damage to the equipment the instructor who checked out the equipment will be responsible for 50% the value of replacing the kits, the other 50% being split between the kiting and instruction budget
· Merely temporary – inteded to assist kiting instructors in increasing their proficiency in handling the kites in there effort to provide quality and safe instruction on behalf of Hoofers Sailing Club and winter kiting program
· Maybe replace “catastrophic” with the word “abusive/intentional/stupid?” Or “could be/may be liable for 50%”
o If already included elsewhere in Hoofers bi-laws maybe not include in Kiting Policy
· Kites that can be checked out are limited to certain types – not the $2,000 variety
· Upon revisions stated above, motion to pass the kiting instructor equipment checkout policy
Budget Timeline
· Right around winter break we need to start talking about budgets
o Maybe look at your budgets over break and be prepared to discuss it after school starts up again
o Usually in the 3rd week of January
Website Update Timeline
· We WILL be updating the website soon
· There will be fleet pages
o As a captain think about what you would like your webpage to look like
o Try to do this over break so we can discuss this upon return
· Maybe a genereal webpage overhaul?
o A group of people have been discussing new structure that should be incorporated in the new website
o It would be great if everyone came up with something that they would like to see in the new website
§ Ex: Nick wants a ticker on the top of the page – “Sloop winch broken/wind has progressed into blue flag, etc.”
Tech Turnover
· Purpose: find solution for dwindling tech fleet
· Reasoning: expected membership increase for the renovation
· Directions: build boats in house, look for a new platform, contract a builder with existing molds, MIT Tech G6
· Timeline: with new renovation, membership is expected to increase – at this point our fleet does not service the current membership
· Key Components
o Social responsibility
o Continuous Turnover
o Resale Value
o Lakefront space consideration
o Stability and simplicity of platform
o The history of Hoofers
· Contract builders
o Melges was basically the only company who said they could build them ~ pricey
· Build boats in House
o Hoofers owns model
o A lot cheaper
o State Non complete Clause
§ Can’t sell boats or compete with companies that sell boats
§ Risk management : can build boats but can’t program on them
· Find a new platform
o Look into what other programs are using
· MIT G6 Tech
o Carbon fiber and fiber glass
o Looks remotely like a tech that we know
o Pros:
§ Maneuverability much better than old tech
§ Weight
§ Hull shape responds very little to weight differences
§ Small jump in education
§ All settings led back to the sailor
§ Can dry capsize/floating rudders
§ Centerboard cassette is closed
§ In high stress areas – carbon fiber/fiberglass
§ All of these add ons are optional
ú Can customize boat order
ú MIT is just letting use borrow the molds
ú Rondar is very accommodating the adjustments we want for the club
· Don’t want to over-adjust the boat outside of its best ability to sail
o Cons:
§ Manueverability
§ Completely new parts compared to the old Tech
§ Static stability much lower than old techs
§ Fixing would need to happen IMMEDIATELY
§ Completely different boat than the Tech rigging wise
§ Balsa core – potential con with stability/durability
· Firefly
o Cat or Sloop rigged
Pro: Similar to 420 or FJ and shares parts
Con: Kind of a new trend – haven’t seen their performance in American clubs
· Laser Vago
o Plastic Boats
o Pro: Similar to FJ / 420 – large sail – cool features
o Con: Has yet to be tested in a club setting
· Club rigged FJ
o Just a single sail – not jib
o You can “bomb proof” theses
o Pros:
§ Bumpers on the front/anti capsize capabilities
§ Club teams have experience on these and have rave reviews
§ Can also be used for the sailing team
§ Definitely able to be resold
o Cons: considerably more maneuverable
o Less comfortable for a taller or larger person
o WILL REQUIRE NEW TRAINING
· Overall:
o The Tech G6 and FJ have tied boats from the tech replacement board
o At meetings members have voiced their opinions on having Techs remain on the lakefront – tradition!
o In 10 years it will be more likely that FJs are being made – maybe MIT will have a G7 at that time
· Questions:
o Will it be hard to get back into if it capsizes?
o Since its so light how does increased body weight cause the boat to sail/react?
o Will the boat hold up to Hoofers location?
o Can you put a weight on the centerboard to stabilize the boat?
· Next Step
o Figuring out financing
o How many boats we want (eventually want the fleet to be 36-40)
o Replacments would come in phases – if we bring in 12 G6’s then well have 24 total techs
· Current Financing
o Will hopefully be able to sell FJs at end of year around $3,000
o Replacment tech js in 6/8/10 years
§ Takes into account inflation
§ Very easy to sell off each generation
o Tech G6
§ A little more expensive than tech js
§ Could probably sell around 1,500
§ Not used in any other clubs than MIT – no real demand
§ For 20 boats ~ $128,700
§ For 30 boats ~ 193,050
o Look into how we can go about purchasing new boats
§ Donations/take out loans/letter campaign?
§ The board will vote on the eventual happenings of the financial procedure to procure the boats
· FJs
o 1999’s – sailed for around 12 years by the team
o If we end up getting FJ’s they will probably look like how our looks currently
§ We are actually looking in to replacing the FJs we already have
o Can we re design these?
§ Normal and Bullet proof version
ú Same rudders/pintels/gudgeons etc but can change boat fills and foils
· Based on the vote from the committee it seems that the Tech J has greater votes
· We will have another meeting before the presentation at the quarterly meeting
o One more next Wednesday for the tech committee to consolidate entire thought process involving the replacement plan
· Full transparency must be practiced during this quarterly meeting
· Before giving them an online poll – give them the entire background process to alleviate questions
· A hoofers sailing reddit account was made
o This way people can upvote and downvote comments if they are irrelevant or unpopular or if they are great!
o Post that this is a potential place to voice opinions on the matter
· Basically we didn’t want to go to winter break with out any plans
· Would really enjoy having our budget and bid plans in place before our next BOC meeting
o Ex: new winches/j29 mast/etc
· Hopefully come renovation we will have something that is COMPLETELY in the works
o Don’t want the progress to stop dead over break – keep it going
Composites Processing Lab Engineering Course
· Tim Oswald – head of polymer research center
o Has a lab on plastic composites
o Class in student center call Mechanical Engineering 601
§ A few Hoofers are already in it!
o Hopefully will have a boat ready by the spring to test in the lab
o Pros:
§ Potentially cost effective way to expand a fleet that already has a base at a low cos
o Cons:
§ Is it possible to make a quality tech?
§ Risk Management
ú Nick is hopefully meeting with Debbie (Risk Mgmt) before our December 6th meeting
ú There are other clubs on campus that fiber glass their own racecars and race them
ú Put in place a process to potentially do this
· Ideally could potentially have a turnover rate of fjs and build techs in house
Quarterly Meeting
· December 6th
· General Format
o Intro to Techs/Open Forum
o Tech Discussion will then proceed
o Have a presentation
§ Nick maintains order by assigning people to ask questions
o Open forum – people can sign up to talk for a certain amount of time for whatever they want to talk about
· Expect an email from Nick for a very refined and detailed event schedule for how everything will run
o Maybe have people email their concerns ahead of time?
· Nick sent out the room numbers
o Its in the memorial union with a capacity of around 75 people
§ Apparently it is still TBD on the website
· Post a large photo of what the final structure will look like
Motion to Adjourn
· Motioned by Lou Reed
· Seconded by Katlyn Putney
· All motion to end meeting