IOM Worlds Magazine

W RLDS IOM World Championship Foster

City

2015 USA

Radiosailing.Today

Proud supporters of the 2015 Foster City IOM World Championship

Foreword

Welcome to the 2015 Foster City IOM World Championship Regatta, our 11th bi-annual event.

I believe there is more to radio sailing than just being out competing on the water. The history of our IOM Class racing is filled with a tradition of exciting competition played out with honor between competitors and officials.

Good sportsmanship comes from our basic respect for ethics, our rules, the skippers you race against, and for the race officials.

Although winning is the object of sailing in a regatta, it is not the object of playing the game. The motivation for playing the game is having fun with fellow sailors, learning how to improve our game, and our personal challenge to prepare and perform at our highest level.

I would like to thank the City of Foster City for your significant support. I especially want to thank our Organizing Committee, the Parks and Recreation’s Jennifer Liu, and the more than three-dozen volunteers, all of whom continue to strive to make this a memorable event.

Finally I would like to thank the contestants for supporting this regatta and I look forward to meeting every one of you.

Bob Dunlap Regatta Chairman

AFFILIATE MEMBER

IRSA WORLD RADIO SAILING

IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA 3

“Quality parts and solutions for fellow enthusiasts� www.midwestmodelyachting.com

Contents

May the best man win Our IOM ICA organization and what they do for the world of radio sailing.

8 19

IOM Class World’s History

36 Contact Bob Dunlap Regatta Chairman 785 Kyle Street San Jose, California 95127-1017 USA info@usaiomworlds.com Credits Text Bob Wells, Olivier Cohen, Harry Drenth Photography Hanneke Gillissen Pont Design Marcel Bakker (Netherlands) Print Copymat 455 Market Street, Suite 180 San Francisco, CA 94105 Tel (415) 896-0500 www.copymatsf.com Find us on Social Media facebook.com/USAIOMWORLDS twitter.com/USAIOMWORLDS

www.usaiomworlds.com

A recap of our class and our past World Championships

An interview with Harry Drenth Meet our scorekeeper and how our results are linked worldwide.

7 10 13 25 26

31

Event schedule Where we live Graphic maps and tables of our class association population.

Who is who Bios of our competitors with mug shots.

Racing Rules of Sailing 2013 - 2016 Graphic RRS rules number reference.

Race Committee members and our esteemed jury

Vaavud They created a wind meter that plugs right into your smartphone!

32

World Ranking

42

What to do in Foster City

47

Interview with Henning Faas

Harry’s Worlds Ranking by individual & Country.

For your lay day and after Worlds.

Meet out new IRSA publicity man from Germany

Bios of our race officers & judges with mug shots.

IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA 5

4-Channel 2.4GHz Computer Radio System

A firm hand on the tiller The 4GRS is the next best thing to having a hand on the tiller and another on the sheets. It is rock-solid reliable with FHSS, S-FHSS and T-FHSS protocols that keep your boat locked in and on course. Plus, telemetry relays information about the model performance directly to the backlit graphic LCD screen. Aside from all the high-class tech, the feel of the 4GRS is enough to hook experienced R/C modelers. Adjustable angle throttle and steering sticks and an optional throttle ratchet spring enable you to customize every second of sailing to your standards.

Whether you’re a fair-weather sailor or your out to win, TRUST the 4GRS to get you where you want to go.

Features: • 2.4GHz telemetry (T-FHSS) plus S-FHSS. • 40-model memory with 10-character model naming.

• Graphic LCD with backlight and contrast.

• Steering speed and expo.

• Dual rate.

• Programmable mixing.

• Throttle and steering stick tension and angle adjustments.

• Up/Down/Lap Timer.

• Function select dial switch.

futaba-rc.com/133s © 2015 3137370

6 IOM World Championship 2015 Foster ®City USA

Futaba, distributed by Hobbico.

AFFILIATE MEMBER

IRSA WORLD RADIO SAILING

Event Schedule

Day 1

Friday, May 8th

Day 6

Wensday, May 13th

9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Registration and equipment inspection.

Open Practice day.

Lay Day – see article on page 42 “what to do in Foster City”

Day 2

Saturday, May 9th

Day 7

Thursday, May 14th

Day 3

Sunday, May 10th

Friday, May 15th

Open Practice Warning Signal Race Lunch starting at 12:30. Depending on progress of racing, there may not be a formal lunch break. Skippers will have time to have lunch in between Heats.

No Heats shall start after this time Beverages and appetizers, Courtyard Marriott Hotel

Day 8

9:00 am - 9:45 am

9:55 am 10:00 am - 6:30 pm

12:30 pm

6:30 pm

6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Day 4

Monday, May 11th

Day 9

Saturday, May 16th

Day 5

Tuesday, May 12th

9:00 am - 4:00 pm 12:00 pm - 3:30 pm

12:30 pm

4:30 pm - 6:00 pm

6:00 pm - 9:00 pm

9:00 am - 9:45 am

9:55 am 10:00 am - 6:30 pm

12:30 pm

6:30 pm

6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

9:00 am - 9:45 am

9:55 am 10:00 am - 6:30 pm

12:30 pm

6:30 pm

6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

9:00 am - 9:45 am

9:55 am 10:00 am - 6:30 pm

12:30 pm

6:30 pm

6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Registration and equipment inspection.

Pre Worlds Championship Regatta Lunch starting at 12:30. Depending on progress of racing, there may not be a formal lunch break. Skippers will have time to have lunch in between Heats.

Opening Ceremony, Civic Ceremony, Lagoon Room or Amphitheater Welcome Party, Lagoon Room, Community Center.

Open Practice Warning Signal Race Lunch starting at 12:30. Depending on progress of racing, there may not be a formal lunch break. Skippers will have time to have lunch in between Heats.

No Heats shall start after this time Beverages and appetizers, Courtyard Marriott Hotel

Open Practice Warning Signal Race Lunch starting at 12:30. Depending on progress of racing, there may not be a formal lunch break. Skippers will have time to have lunch in between Heats.

No Heats shall start after this time Beverages and appetizers, Lagoon Room, Community Center

9:00 am - 9:45 am

9:55 am 10:00 am - 6:30 pm

12:30 pm

6:30 pm

6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Open Practice Warning Signal Race Lunch starting at 12:30. Depending on progress of racing, there may not be a formal lunch break. Skippers will have time to have lunch in between Heats.

No Heats shall start after this time Crew Dinner, Bertolucci’s Ristorante, 421 Cypress Ave, South San Francisco

Open Practice Warning Signal Race Lunch starting at 12:30. Depending on progress of racing, there may not be a formal lunch break. Skippers will have time to have lunch in between Heats.

No Heats shall start after this time Beverages and appetizers, Courtyard Marriott Hotel

9:00 am - 9:45 am

9:55 am 10:00 am - 6:30 pm

12:30 pm

4:00 pm

5:30 pm

7:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Open Practice Warning Signal Race Lunch starting at 12:30. Depending on progress of racing, there may not be a formal lunch break. Skippers will have time to have lunch in between Heats.

No Heats shall start after this time Awards Ceremony in the Community Center Lagoon Room Dinner Party, Lagoon Room, Community Center Marriott Courtyard Foster City

Foster City E.

H

d ills

ale

d Blv

Sh el l

Blv d

Parking Worlds venue

Sailing area

IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA 7

May the best man win Text Barry Fox | Photos Hanneke Gillissen

8 IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City

What is an IOM ICA and why do we need one?

IOM ICA is the easy way to say International One Metre International Class Association and that is the body that is charged with keeping the standards that make the IOM Class so competitive, fair and enforceable.

This organization is run by a completely volunteer Executive Committee, elected to their positions every two years by the members of the organization.

organised and operated to provide a fair and competitive event.

which leads to an estimate of as many as 15,000 of these boats being in existence around the world. A large class by any measurement.

The next part of the answer is tied to having a well-developed and established set of rules to govern how the boats are built and a system to measure them to assure that they conform to those rules.

Guidance for that comes from a number of sources including the Racing Rules of Sailing from ISAF/IRSA and Class Championship Rules (CCR) provided by the ICA. The CCR are the guidelines that are followed to apply for and operate International level events such as the World Championship and Continental Championship events that are sanctioned by the IOM ICA. These are very extensive and detailed but can be used by National level organisers for their events to help standardize how a regatta takes place.

The IOM ICA has been granted the authority to manage and oversee the IOM class by the International Radio Sailing Association (IRSA) which in turn has been given the authority to govern all Radio Sailing on behalf of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF).

The rules of the IOM Class are configured in a form that is known as a “closed rule” set. What this means is that the rules are written to say what you are allowed to do within the basic confines of the class and that if you want to try something new it has to fit the definition that exists. If what you want to try is not defined in the rules then the short answer is that you

As a matter of interest, there are only four (at this time) recognised International Radio Sailing Classes. Those are the M Class (better known as Marbleheads), the 10R Class (Ten Rater), the A Class and the IOM Class. Out of those the IOM Class is the only one with a formally organised class association, the IOM ICA. The others all have a frame work in place to set up class associations and IRSA is working hard to see that done as well as to have a few other well populated classes become true International Classes.

“…many of the active sailors have multiple boats in their collections which leads to an estimate of as many as 15,000 of these boats (IOMs) in existence around the world.

A large class by any measure.”

How does an ICA do whatever it has to do?

There are some main areas that fall directly into answering that question.

The very first thing has to do with having members. In the case of the ICA our members are the class associations of countries where they have at least a minimum population of IOM boats and sailors. Those associations are called National Class Associations (NCA) and they become members by applying to the ICA and agreeing to uphold the Rules and Constitution/Regulations of the ICA and to fairly represent their own class members.

At this point the ICA has 27 countries on board with fleet sizes in those countries being anywhere from 12 up to over 1,000 sailors for a total of nearly 4,000 active individual members all over the world. It is known that there are a large number of these boats being sailed by individuals that don’t see a benefit from membership in their own country associations and also that many of the active sailors have multiple boats in their collections

cannot do that. Over many years (over 25) the rules have remained fairly constant but with many clarifications and small changes made to recognize changes in technologies that are outside of the ICA’s scope. Those technologies are things items like the radios we use which have seen some very large changes in the last few years and those technologies have completely taken over the older radio technologies which are, in many cases, not even available any longer.

For the Purposes of the IOM ICA, World Championship Regattas are organized every other year in odd number years and

Continental Championship Regattas are held in even numbered years. Applications for these events are reviewed by the Events Sub Committee of the ICA with factors such as the actual proposed location is acceptable, if there is sufficient local knowledge to organize such an event and if this event will expose the IOM class to a new and broader audience, all in the mix for consideration.

If you put all those pieces together you end up with boats that all fit within the Class However, anyone who has a question about the Rules, competing in events that are run to the standards of the same Racing Rules of legality of their new idea is encouraged to ask Sailing and at venues that will provide the best the Technical Sub Committee of the ICA for an interpretation to see if what they are proposing conditions to showcase the IOM class itself and might actually be allowed. There are a number the talented sailors who populate the class throughout the world. of these requests heard every year and some of them have helped to streamline and further Fair and competitive sailing for everyone. clarify the rules of the class.

A suitable goal for an international governing body.

Once you have members and boats, the next thing that is needed is events to sail them in. For regattas held within the boundaries of each country, the NCAs for those countries are responsible to see that the competition is

IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA 9

IOM International Class Association

Where we live North America

2003 Vancouver Canada

2011 West Kirby United Kingdom 1994 Saint Cyr France

45

352

69

618

2007 Marseille France

2015 Foster City United States of America

Central America 5

54

2009 Barbedos

8

54

South America 12

169

238

14

Certified Owners

Owners by National Class Associations Registered Owners

Nat.

North America USA CAN Central America BAR South America BRA CHI ARG Europe GBR GER FRA

Registered

Certified

552 66

301 51

14

14

101 73 64

66 39 64

1002 297 148

797 245 148

Nat.

ESP SWE NOR ITA IRL POR CRO NED SUI DEN TUR FIN BEL

Registered

103 101 88 74 63 63 62 53 53 41 40 35 27

Certified

75 82 56 60 55 46 62 39 19 40 17 35 27

Nat.

MLT Africa RSA Asia ISR Oceania AUS NZL

Registered

Certified

12

11

54

54

51

51

464 174

464 174

This map and the tables below show how our class association population is distributed in our seven regions. If you are a member of your National Authority and possess an IOM, you are a Registered Owner. If in addition your boat is measured and certificated then you are also a Certificated Owner as well. The map also locates our past ten Worlds Championships and the 2015 Worlds coming to Foster City. Thank you to the Netherland’s tandem of Harry Drenth for the idea/data research and Marcel Bakker for the design execution.

AFFILIATE MEMBER

Europe

IRSA 1814

WORLD RADIO SAILING

209

Asia 2001 Omisalj Croatia

2262

409 51

1999 Malta Malta

13 15

51

Africa 54

8

19

54

Oceania 97

638

638

2005 Mooloolaba Australia

156 1997 Wellington New Zealand

Unique Entries

Worlds Entries period 1994 - 2013 Total Entries Nat.

North America USA CAN Central America BAR South America BRA ARG CHI Europe GBR FRA CRO

Unique*

Total*

28 17

45 24

5

8

8 3 1

9 4 1

49 38 24

132 63 56

Nat.

GER ITA ESP NED SWE IRL POR NOR BEL DEN FIN SLO SUI

Unique*

16 19 11 7 8 4 7 3 5 3 3 2 4

Total*

31 26 20 12 11 10 8 7 6 6 5 5 4

Nat.

MLT TUR ROM Africa RSA Asia ISR JPN Oceania AUS NZL FIJ

Unique*

Total*

3 2 1

4 2 1

8

19

11 2

13 2

58 33 6

103 47 6

Who is who?

Heatrace 1 A Age 28 City Balloch, Scotland Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: WC in 2013, 4th, 5th, 15th

Robert Walsh GBR 25

7

1

15

5

The 2015 IOM World Championship skippers are listed below with their mug shot and some bio information. We have their sail number with country and the design of each skipper’s boat.

World Ranking Worlds Place 2013 Scott Yam, Israel 7

Finally the colored table summarizes each skippers overall ranking and most recent performance at World and European Championships. Just like in golf, low numbers are better.

1

15

5

Europeans Place 2014 Lake Garda, Italy Europeans Ranking

Marko Matic CRO 4

Soren Andresen DEN 93

Mario Skrlj CRO 8

Zvonko Jelacic CRO 35

Graham Bantock GBR 95

Heatrace 1 B

Heatrace 1 C

Heatrace 1 D

Heatrace 1 E

Heatrace 1 E

Age 33 City Trogir Design Kantun SMX IOM Worlds Results: 2nd, 5th, 11th

Age 50 City Copenhagen Design Mojo IOM Worlds Results: 3rd, 15th, 23th, 53th

Age 25 City Trogir Design Kantun S IOM Worlds Results: 3rd, 4th, 33th

Age 32 City Split Design Kantun S IOM Worlds Results: WC in 2009, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th

Age 62 City Kelvedon Design Fractal 2 IOM Worlds Results: WC in ‘99 and ‘94, 2x2nd, 6th, 8th, 2 x 9th, 10th

31

2

28

-

28

3

22

9

37

4

-

-

6

5

6

4

2

6

2

Mirko Ukas CRO 80

Robert Matulja CRO 33

Patrice Montero FRA 38

Boris Bakotic CRO 96

Craig Mackey USA 29

Heatrace 1 D

Heatrace 1 C

Heatrace 1 B

Heatrace 1 A

Heatrace 1 A

Age 29 City Split Design Kantun SMX IOM Worlds Results: 8th, 12th, 13th, 24th, 59th

Age 29 City Opatija Design Kantun S IOM Worlds Results: 9th, 13th, 19th

Age 54 City Aix en Provence Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: 10th, 43th, 45th, 49th

Age 31 City Split Design Kantun S IOM Worlds Results: 11th, 36th, 44th

Age xx City xx Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: 12th, 3 x 14th, 20th, 34th

17

8

115

20

43

9

23

33

52

10

37

12

56

11

39

36

16

12

31

29

30

IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA 13

Gary Boell USA 71

Vedran Vesanovic CRO 44

Stephan Cohen USA 28

Claes Brunnhage SWE 98

Achille Chatin FRA 16

Heatrace 1 B

Heatrace 1 C

Heatrace 1 D

Heatrace 1 E

Heatrace 1 E

Age 50 City Richmond, California Design Mojo IOM Worlds Results: 13th

Age 61 City Trogir Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: 14th, 43th

Age 48 City Los Angeles Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: 16th, 61th

Age 62 City Stockholm Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: 17th, 45th, 55th

Age 47 City Bordeaux Design V8 IOM Worlds Results: 19th, 38th, 40th

133

13

195

47

86

14

62

51

109

16

-

-

81

17

50

18

66

19

52

45

John Cleave GBR 0

Huub Gillissen NED 99

Maurizio Morbidelli ITA 52

Carsten Posmik GER 7

Brad Gibson GBR 42

Heatrace 1 D

Heatrace 1 C

Heatrace 1 B

Heatrace 1 A

Heatrace 1 A

Age 75 City Bembridge Design Chase IOM Worlds Results: 5th, 14th, 2 x 23th, 25th, 39th, 46th, 52th

Age 63 City Zoetermeer Design Chase IOM Worlds Results: 27th, 42th

Age 57 City Perugia Design MX 16 IOM Worlds Results: 35th

Age 58 City Hamburg Design Fraktal IOM Worlds Results: 36th, 60th, 72th, 75th

Age 43 City Wallarsey Village Design TBD IOM Worlds Results: WC 2007 - 2 x 2nd, 4th, 6th

19

23

30

-

110

27

49

28

304

35

282

72

204

36

246

60

3

-

3

Olivier Cohen FRA 100

Alexis Carre FRA 73

Peter Stollery GBR 39

Marc Alazia FRA 188

Laurent Bourriquel FRA 195

Heatrace 1 B

Heatrace 1 C

Heatrace 1 D

Heatrace 1 E

Heatrace 1 E

Age 46 City Thouaré sur Loire Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: 18th, 32th

Age 32 City Gujan-Mestras Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: 6th, 7th, 30th

Age 41 City Saffron Walden Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: WC in 2011, 2 x 5th, 8th, 29th

Age 65 City Marseille Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: 37th, 52th, 53th

Age 42 City Cap d’Agde Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: -

73

-

12

3

39

-

10

7

14 IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA

5

-

4

11

91

-

53

14

-

-

75

1

16

Tony Edwards GBR 75

Marc Pomarede FRA 144

Thomas Enwall SWE 50

Yannick Rossignol FRA 22

Robert Grubisa CRO 68

Heatrace 1 D

Heatrace 1 C

Heatrace 1 B

Heatrace 1 A

Heatrace 1 A

Age 69 City Sherborne Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: 19th, 24th, 27th, 29th

Age 55 City L’Union Design Il était un petit navire IOM Worlds Results: 17th

Age 56 City Lidingö, Stockholm Design Cheinz IOM Worlds Results: 58th

Age 46 City Albi Design Il était un petit navire IOM Worlds Results: 20th, 21th, 34th

Age 47 City Rijeka Design Kantun S IOM Worlds Results: 24th, 27th, 34th, 39th

32

-

18

17

120

-

42

21

281

-

67

27

47

-

40

31

40

-

43

Lindsay Walker AUS 32

Torvald Klem NOR 47

Gregory King GBR 147

Eric Deravin FRA 228

Olivier Weis GER 293

Heatrace 1 B

Heatrace 1 C

Heatrace 1 D

Heatrace 1 E

Heatrace 1 E

Age xx City xx Design Chase IOM Worlds Results: 52th

Age 68 City Oslo Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: 11th, 13th, 18th, 36th, 46th

Age 25 City Oxford Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: -

Age 56 City Gujan-Mestras Design Il était un petit navire IOM Worlds Results: -

Age 53 City Langwedel Design Fusion IOM Worlds Results: -

245

-

166

38

20

-

34

42

-

-

194

46

-

-

61

50

-

-

242

Peter Allen BAR 74

Johan Ameln SWE 46

Bruce Andersen USA 116

Vernon Appleton GBR 136

Denis Astbury BRA 11

Heatrace 1 D

Heatrace 1 C

Heatrace 1 B

Heatrace 1 A

Heatrace 1 A

Age 59 City Bridgetown Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: 12th, 20th, 52th

Age 65 City Stockholm Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: -

Age plenty old City Boise, Idaho, USA Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: 56th, 63th

Age 42 City Grays Essex Design Goth (modified) IOM Worlds Results: 62th, 64th

Age 43 City Rio de Janeiro Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: -

51

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

227

-

-

-

209

-

-

-

-

-

-

37

59

-

IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA 15

Jess Atkinson USA 56

Ken Binks GBR 83

Kym Daub GER 40

Glenn Dawson AUS 76

John Ebey USA 193

Heatrace 1 B

Heatrace 1 C

Heatrace 1 D

Heatrace 1 E

Heatrace 1 E

Age 27 City Flensburg Design Lintel MMX’15 IOM Worlds Results: -

Age 56 City Perth Design V8 IOM Worlds Results: -

Age 50 City San Rafael, California Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: -

Age xx City Alameda Design V9 IOM Worlds Results: -

-

-

Age 67 City Eastbourne Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: 7th, 8th, 10th, 2 x 31th, 63th -

14

-

25

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Ted Flack USA 145

Hans Funke SWE 128

Mark Golison USA 55

Tony Gonsalves BAR 51

Martin Gray IRL 83

Heatrace 1 D

Heatrace 1 C

Heatrace 1 B

Heatrace 1 A

Heatrace 1 A

Age 69 City West Bloomfield, Michigan Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: -

Age 67 City Stockholm Design Fraktal IOM Worlds Results: -

Age xx City Long Beach Design V9 IOM Worlds Results: -

Age 58 City Bridgetown Design Cheinz IOM Worlds Results: 2 x 16th

Age 66 City Jacksonvill FL Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: -

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

62

-

-

-

-

-

-

Austin Guerrier GBR 18

Tony Guerrier GBR 150

Julian Laffin CAN 36

Claus Lindström SWE 141

Hirao Minao JPN 59

Heatrace 1 B

Heatrace 1 C

Heatrace 1 D

Heatrace 1 E

Heatrace 1 E

Age 56 City London Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: -

Age 56 City London Design V9 IOM Worlds Results: -

Age 33 City Hornby Island, British Columbia Design Jive IOM Worlds Results: -

Age 60 City Stockholm Design Amoress IOM Worlds Results: -

Age 65 City Kobe Design Yoshiaki Okada IOM Worlds Results: -

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

16 IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Eduard Bonifacio Mingo ESP 41

Daniel Mueller BRA 157

Tom Olson SWE 5

George Pedrick USA 57

Ricardo Pollono ARG 711

Heatrace 1 D

Heatrace 1 C

Heatrace 1 B

Heatrace 1 A

Heatrace 1 A

Age 63 City Stockholm Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: 62th

Age 57 City Point Richmond, CA Design V9 IOM Worlds Results: -

Age 60 City Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires Design Fraktal IOM Worlds Results: 45th, 73th

Age 53 City Barcelona Design MX 14 IOM Worlds Results: -

-

-

Age 47 City Porto Alegre Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: -

-

-

-

-

362

-

284

-

-

-

-

-

237

-

-

Berndt Prahl SWE 141

Kirwan Robb AUS 91

Dennis Rogers USA 43

Gines Romero ESP 174

Udo Ropke GER 111

Heatrace 1 B

Heatrace 1 C

Heatrace 1 D

Heatrace 1 E

Heatrace 1 E

Age 79 City Danderyd Design V8 IOM Worlds Results: -

Age 40 City Williamstown, Melbourne Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: -

Age 56 City San Diego Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: 50th

Age 56 City Valencia Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: -

Age 51 City Bad Schwartau Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: -

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

280-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Nicolas Rosas ARG 61

Burak Sahbaz TUR 12

Miguel Salvador ESP 15

Craig Smith AUS 747

Peter Stevens CAN 54

Heatrace 1 D

Heatrace 1 C

Heatrace 1 B

Heatrace 1 A

Heatrace 1 A

Age 40 City Tigre - Buenos Aires Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: -

Age 41 City Istanbul Design Kantun SMX IOM Worlds Results: -

Age 40 City Palma de Mallorca Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: -

Age 56 City Frankston, Australia Design Chase IOM Worlds Results: WC in 2005 and 1997, 2 x 2nd, 3rd, 7th

Age 57 City Victoria Design V9 IOM Worlds Results: -

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA 17

Pedro L. Stier Neto BRA 37

Ian Vickers NZL 171

Allan Walker AUS 26

Stan Wallace BAH 88

Okada Yoshiaki JPN 173

Heatrace 1 B

Heatrace 1 C

Heatrace 1 D

Heatrace 1 E

Heatrace 1 E

Age 49 City Curitiba Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: 7th, 9th, 10th

Age 45 City Auckland Design V9 IOM Worlds Results: 7th, 9th, 10th

Age 67 City Surfers Paradise Design Maybe 3 IOM Worlds Results: 28th, 30th, 56th

Age 52 City Taree Design BritPOP! IOM Worlds Results: -

Age 60 City Toyota City Design Shuttle2 IOM Worlds Results: -

-

-

-

-

34

-

-

-

63

-

-

-

For full biographies please visit our website:

www.usaiomworlds.com/biography

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An Interview with Dutchman Harry Drenth, our Scorekeeper Our 2015 Worlds website manager, Harry Drenth, is one hard working and clever IT (Internet Technology) dude. I’ve been providing content to him for about six months now, and I’ve learned that things happen when he is involved. The Worlds website is going great and it is well beyond my early expectations, but Harry was also hired as scorekeeper for his digital scoring system that also broadcasts the results worldwide. I have been told that it works very well. Let’s get to know Harry better and learn about his scoring system that is coming to our Worlds. For the record Harry’s English is very understandable, but I have cleaned it up a bit with his permission: IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA 19

Bob Wells: Tell us a bit about yourself.

Harry Drenth: I’m 55 years old and living with my girlfriend in Biddinghuizen, where we’re four meters below sea level in the middle of the Flevopolder. This is reclaimed land from back in the 1960s. I have two daughters, Simone 26 and Marjolein 24; and I have had my own IT company since 1997.

Bob Wells: How long have you been sailing?

Harry Drenth: I have been sailing since my childhood. My father built a wooden half-ton sailing boat in the late sixties. We sailed every weekend in the south of the Netherlands and during holidays we sailed throughout the Netherlands. All this was for recreation, since my Father didn’t want to sail in races. I thought that was a petty since our boat was extremely fast, and the designer of our boat had built one and won a lot of races with his.

Bob Wells: How long have you been radio sailing?

Harry Drenth: In 1987 I started radio sailing after I was injured and got a whiplash.

I bought a second hand Ashanti Marblehead and became addicted. Two years later I got a new Marblehead, an Anja 18 that was designed and built by the Swiss sailor Helmut Lupard; and I fell in love with this boat and still have it.

After stopping for a couple of years due to work pressure and young kids, I picked up radio sailing again together with my youngest daughter, Marjolein. Initially we sailed the Marblehead and later the Micro Magic when that class became hot in the Netherlands (with over 2000 registered boats 6 years after introduction).

This was from 2001-2006, and Marjolein was 10 in 2001.

During that period I became convinced

Harry processing the data in Marseille, France

that radio sailing trains you well as sailor.

Marjolein proved it for me when she applied for and was selected for the 2005 Dutch Talent team, our national sailing authority.

This team was focused on the 2016 Olympics in Rio. She sailed for almost 5 years on the Dutch youth team, initially in the Yngling and after the Olympics of 2008 in the 470.

Her dream to go to the Olympics stopped when she over-trained and sustained an injury. Unfortunately this injury still impacts her sports career five years later. In 2009 I started sailing RG65 together with my friend Gerrit de Wilde. We sailed them for many years in Germany, Swiss and France. I really like this class. It is a sort of half Marblehead and the fun is that you can cost effectively experiment, which we did a lot.

Bob Wells: Is your daughter still involved with sailing or radio sailing today?

Harry Drenth: Currently she is not, although occasionally she’ll sail for fun. Nowadays she is rowing on the woman’s 8 team at her University.

Bob Wells: Obviously Marjolein has a competitive streak in her, I wonder where she got that? Have you sailed IOMs? Harry Drenth: Only once a while. Last year Huub loaned me his spare boat with which I sailed in the Belgium Championship. That was great fun with a great boat.

Bob Wells: How did your involvement in digital regatta scoring come about? I also like the idea of nearly instant promotion / relegation information being projected on monitors. A gaggle of skippers huddling around a magnetic board as names for the next heat are slowly placed is so 20th century.

Harry Drenth: You are jumping ahead; the electronic fleet board came after the scoring system, and real-time distribution of the results on the Internet.

My background was as an agricultural engineer in arable farming. For the first ten years of my career path I worked as a researcher at a research station. My life in IT started there in 1981 when I left school for my first job. I became responsible for all software development for our decision support system of disease management in winter wheat. With only six month’s of course programming in Basic, I had to develop software in the program language Fortran. It intrigued me and I had the capability to learn the language and job in a short period. I never left the IT business.

After being an IT consultant and IT manager

20 IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA

I started my own company in 1997 focussing on mobile applications. I worked on all kind of projects all over Europe and developed various applications, mainly mobile related.

Currently our main activities focus on software applications for the production and distribution of flower cuttings. We developed a logistic system for one of the leading companies in the pharmaceutical and seed genetics. This system is used on the farms where the flower cuttings are produced and distributed. In total around 20 locations use the software.

I have for some time wanted to develop a regatta digital scoring system. I hoped to combine it with our training program, because in our IT area you train continuously to keep up with developments that evolve so quickly. In the summer of 2013 my colleague Peter Meeuwse and I began focusing on regatta scoring with a test project experimenting with new technology and program languages. When we learned that the Dutch Radio Sailing Association would host the 2014 Marblehead Worlds in the Netherlands, I wondered if we might have a scoring system that would help the regatta . Our prototype scoring program was tested September 2013 during our Marblehead Nationals. Reactions were all very positive.

I got in contact with a representative of the Dutch Sailing Association who was very interested because their system was at the end of its lifecycle. This got us to think about this as a serious business opportunity.

Bob Wells: I remember Fortran from a college course, and unlike you I had no interest or aptitude. Which reminds me of a slogan I saw at an Architecture school I visited in the 60s: Bridges, Buildings, Piers, and Tiers; these are the things for Engineers.

Wine, Women, Song, and Sex; these are the things for Architects.

I don’t know why that stays with me, but I have egregiously digressed. What happens next in your quest to develop a useful digital scoring system?

Harry Drenth: I was also in contact with the Israeli organization for the 2013 IOM Worlds in Sdot Yam, Israel. They wanted me to come over and help with their scoring. This was a great opportunity to test our scoring system in a major regatta. However the organization had no budget, so I decide to invest in myself and bought a ticket and went over to do the scoring with our new system.

From the start it was important for us to integrate the scorings software into the website. By doing this we could have real-time fleetboard and scoring. In Israel

Infrastructure

Remote fleetboard in building

i-pad scoring

scoring database

Heat Report

Cloud

Scoring Office

News

Mobile App

email marketing service

ŠRadioSailing.today

we had a preliminary version of this. We also experimented with Twitter integration, which was very successful. After entering the results of each heat a twitter message was posted with the top 3 results and a link to the results on the website.

During that week in Sdot Yam I had a number of funny situations relating to the speed of the Internet. There were several occasions that Oliver Cohen emailed me questions and remarks about the scoring or fleetboard. Sometimes his question came so fast that I was still in the middle of entering the results. Our scoring system is real-time, but not until we have a moment to enter

the results.

Another one occurred on the last day. For that whole week our two Dutch sailors, Huub Gillissen and Walter Geurts, were not doing very well. But on the last day, when the wind was strong and the conditions we’re rough and bad, they got going and sailed in A-fleet. In one of the races they finished first and second. Less than 3 minutes after we entered the results, Hanneke Gillissen received a text message from Australia, “Congratulations! What the heck is going on over there?”

These stories make me smile. That’s why I’m doing this.

Sdot Yam was a very successful event for my scoring system and me. I took home many new ideas for the scoring system and had many great personal experiences.

Bob Wells: What happens next?

Harry Drenth: The winter of 2013-2014 was a half-year before the Marblehead Worlds, and we worked on the second generation of our scoring software. We also built the website for the Marblehead Worlds. This became the start of RadioSailing.Today, the sailing division within our company focused on developing a community platform for competitive radio sailing.

Fleetboard Event information and time latest update of information

Boats which are out of competition, called withdrawn boats, are shown over here.

22 IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA

Information panel shows latest race information

Observer allocation is referring to red heat

Next Race and Heat Sailors have to be in the launching before the first boat in the current heat has finished

Current Race and Heat

Another new feature is the Mail Ranking Report. I got the idea after receiving the Volvo Ocean Position Reports. After each race, when the ranking is updated, an email service is active which sends a top 10 ranking report to the subscribers. This allows following the event by mail. I encourage you to subscribe to this service on our website.

We are also working on a phone app for fleetboard, overall ranking, and individual ranking. As of today it is not clear if we will make the deadline. We’ll see. If not it will be the new feature for the next event we will be involved. i-pad scoring

During the spring of 2014 I tested our second gen software at three different locations: the German IOM Nationals, the UK Marblehead Nationals, and then the French IOM Nationals. I was very happy that all three organizations gave me permission to test our new software in a real life environment. It gave us the confidence that the software is working fine.

On July 5th, 2014 the Marblehead Worlds started, and this was our second major event now using multiple electronic fleetboards.

Here we distributed three fleetboards over the area. This was a success that worked 99% of the time. We had a small hiccup when someone accidentally restarted one of the pc’s. Except for that the system worked as we hoped and expected. Scoring worked 100% of the time. Results were real-time accessible on the website, and heat results were posted on twitter. In the end it was a very successful event, and our scoring system greatly improved communication.

This success has led us to an on-going project with our National authority to develop new scoring software for full size sailing.

Bob Wells: What happens next?

Harry Drenth: Around October 2014 we became involved with the USA organization for the 2015 IOM Worlds. We developed the Worlds website and also our next generation scorings software. Again all is fully integrated. The web platform is evolving towards a community platform for radio sailing. We added a new functionality call “Training for Worlds”, that documents worldwide events of skippers preparing for Worlds. It includes a calendar with results and ranking system, and in many cases

regatta reports. This is a first attempt to have one source for worldwide events. It has been a time-consuming effort to keep it up to date. In some cases it has been a challenge to get the results, reports, and pictures in time. Our next version will have modules for the NCA’s to add events to the calendar and create their own rankings.

Our scoring system connects directly to this system and we plan to develop a module to load data from other scoring systems like the HMS Excel sheet of the MYA. We are introducing several new website features for this Championship. Our goal is to have the event run as smoothly as possible, and to get as many races per day as possible. We appreciate receiving a lot of input from the past regattas, and where possible we have adapted our system to many of the recommendations. We also want to have our audience more involved, and for that we created several new components on the website’s homepage.

The top 10 and fleetboard are shown real-time on the slider. We have real-time weather information provided by Windguru, who offered us an on-site weather station.

This is on the Worlds website under Event Info.

Another of our new developments is an iPad scoring app. Scoring has never been as simple as now. I’m going to test it during the Nordic Championship on 18th-19th of April. The app lets you record the current heat by clicking buttons with the sail numbers of the boats in the heat.

After saving the results the boats are promoted as needed, and the new heat is instantaneously ready to be loaded.

Importantly the fleet board is also updated.

Bob Wells: Harry, it has been my pleasure to work with you on the 2015 Worlds website and magazine. This has been a revelation for me on your web connected scoring system, which I look forward to seeing in real-time in Foster City soon.

Harry Drenth: Bob, the pleasure is all mine.

I feel privileged to be working with you trying to boost the IOM Class worldwide. Developing this magazine with you was and is an inspiring experience. Thank you for that!

Mail Ranking Report If you want to receive the Ranking Report after each race please go to the website and make sure you subscribe to this service.

www.usaiomworlds.com

IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA 23

MIRAGE RADIO YACHTS Mirage Radio Yachts is a design and building operation producing R/C yachts, including IOM’s, Marblehead’s and RG65’s.

Mirage Radio Yachts also supplies sails to suit these classes.

Current IOM designs include the Mojo and Cheinz. Both of these designs have won

many events around the World and are very competitive boats.

Mantra is the new Marblehead design which has just been released and in its first outing won the Australian Nationals. This event was sailed in a variety of conditions and the Mantra proved a worthy addition to the

With the benefit of innovative design, coupled with computer-controlled manufacture, Hales Micro has raised the ball bearing model yacht block to a new level of technology, consistent with modern requirements.

stable. Missile is the RG 65 design. This boat has proven to be very competitive and will be even more so with plans to fit a swing rig to cater for those very light conditions.

For more information please go to:

www.mirageradioyachts.com

Since model yacht racing takes place increasingly at marine venues, all metal parts are manufactured from corrosion resistant stainless steel. The side plates are recessed to suit the thinner high strength sheet lines now common in radio yachting.

www.halesmicro.com

Racing RulesRules of Sailing 2013 - 2016 Racing of Sailing 2013 - 2016 Starboard-tack

Zone

Wind direction

44

11 16 12

M

2 2

2

12

1

2

12

M 11

18.2b

11 2

18.3

18.2c

M

1

2

M

2

11

1

11

18.2b

2

3

1

Port-tack

1

3 Touched the mark One-Turn Penalty

10

M

1

10

1

1

18.2c

Zone Obstruction

20

10 11

11

10

19.2a

Leeward

1 1

12

11

Rule broken Two-Turns Penalty

2 Overlap

15

2

2 1

10

M

10

11

2

M

1

10

1

12

1

When I am moving astern, I will keep clear

10

3

16

2

11

1

11

2 3

Rule 18 does not apply

2

Don’t sail above your proper course

2

Bang

Starting Line 3

12

2

12

No (mark-)room

1

11

1

There is no zone at an obstruction

Zone 3

10 A boat is on a tack, starboard or port corresponding to her windward side

Port-tack

10

22.3

Starboard-tack

11

2

17 Pr

11

ope

rC

1

our

se

Red boat - keep-clear boat Green boat - right-of-way boat (Rule number 10,11,12 or 13)

Rule number

14

22.1

12

3

Leeward

18.2

2

After the starting signal I will keep clear

18.4 3

M = Give mark-room

Room to tack

1

Windward

A boat’s leewards side is the side on which her mainsail lies The other side is her windward side

Room to tack

10

Zone

2

M

1

20 11

Starboard-tack

M

18.2b

Port-tack

15 1

19.2 1

13

11

M

18.2b

1

Obstruction

M 42

2

42

2

M 2

19.2b

12 ne

I have to give room

g li

11

11

2

2

2

1

1

1

Fin ish in

Continuing obstruction

44

1

1

2

2

2

Clear Ahead

12

1

3

3

Clear Astern

Obstruction

Windward

2 1

I no longer have to give room I have to give room

1

11

11

2 Developing situation Overlap or Clear Astern & Clear Ahead

Zone

A distance of three hull lenghts

This document is provided as ADVICE ONLY for competitors.

Specifically, it does not change the RRS and is not part of the Sailing Instructions or the Notice of Race

www.watersportplaatjes.nl

Henk Plaatje 2014 henk@plaatje.info

Fred Rocha Principal Race Officer Your home town and country: San Diego, California, USA Nationality: Brazilian and American Number of years sailing: Over 35 years

Number of years radio sailing: 15 years Number of years officiating (judging): 13 Years Different sailing classes that you’ve participated in: Optimist, Laser, Snipe, J24, IOM, Marblehead, RG65, Micro Magic, and many others Number of total events officiated (approx.): Radio Sailing: 1 IOM European, 9 IOM USA Nationals, 1 IOM BRA Nationals, 8 AMYA National Class Regattas, over 50 Regional events, and many club events. People Boats: 1 Snipe North American, 2 Soling South Americans, 2 J24 BRA Nationals

Ahoy! I’m Fred Rocha, your Principal Race Officer. On behalf of our Race Committee, it is a pleasure to welcome you to this IOM World Championship in Foster City, California. I’m honored to serve you and all the members over the course of our event. We have carefully selected the most professional team available to ensure the highest quality race management, and to provide the most level playing field possible during the championship.

For many years I have looked forward to having the highest caliber IOM competitors sailing in the USA. You are the best IOM sailors from 21 different nations, competing and socializing over six days of racing. Protest hearings are stressful and time consuming, and are never fun for any of the parties involved. This process can be lengthy, and the time never recaptured over the course of the event. One or even two penalty turns are always much faster than the fastest protest hearing.

Please, be fast and let the true spirit of sailing with sportsmanship and fair play guide you.

Race Committee members

Jeff Byerley Race Officer

Geert Geelkerken Race Officer

Home town and country: Primrose Sands, Tasmania Nationality: Australia (born in New Zealand) Number of years sailing: 58 years on the water!

Number of years radio sailing: 20 years Number of years officiating (judging): 10 years Different sailing classes that you’ve participated in: Arrow, Moth,Ok dinghy, M Class, Eighteen Foot skiffs, Trailer Sailers, Keel boats. R/C classes include; Marblehead,IOM’s,10 Raters, RG65’s.

Your home town and country: Reeuwijk, The Netherlands Nationality: Dutch Number of years sailing: 51 years Number of years radio sailing: 10 years Number of years officiating (judging): 20 years Different sailing classes that you’ve participated in: Solo, Pampus, 16m2, RC K Class Number of total events officiated (approx.): > 50

26 IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA

John Super Race Officer

Pierre Gonnet Race Officer

Your home town and country: San Francisco, CA Nationality: USA Number of years sailing: I have been sailing big boats on SF Bay since 1967 and RC Boats on Spreckles Lake in Golden Gate Park since 2012. My experience includes stints as Fleet Captain for the old wood SF Bay boat Maya Class, the Islander Bahama class and as Regional VP for the Soling Class. I am the co-founder of the Plastic Classic Regatta. Since 1982 I have been involved in race management and am certified by US Sailing as a Regional Race Officer and Judge. My RC sailing is in the Victoria and the Vela classes.

Your home town and country: Pierrelatte, France Nationality: French Number of years sailing: 28 years of competition Number of years radio sailing: 31 years Number of years officiating (judging): 22 years, Race Committee, 17 years jury committee, 11 years umpire Different sailing classes that you’ve participated in: Marblehead, IOM, micro magic, rg 65, Multi hull 2 meters, and MINI 40 ( European Champion in 2000 )

Michael Howard Eldred Measurer

Harry Drenth Scoring

Your home town and country: San Diego California Nationality: USA Number of years sailing: 45 years Number of years radio sailing: 40 years Number of years officiating (Measurer): Since the 1984 Olympics’ where I was a measurer for the keel boat classes.

Different sailing classes that you’ve participated in: Hobie Cat the IOR distance racing-the IOR 50 pro class-ultra light sledsAmerica’s cup 1992-1995-2000-2003- Remote classes Santa Barbara- US one meter -IOM and the Marblehead.

Your home town and country: Biddinghuizen / Netherlands Nationality: Dutch Number of years sailing: 50 years Number of years radio sailing: 28 years Number of years officiating (scoring): 3 years Sailing classes that you’ve participated in: Half ton, Marblehead, A-Class, RG65, Micro Magic

IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA 27

On behalf of the International Jury may I say how delighted we are to be with you for the 2015 World IOM Championships. You may, from the photographs recognise some of us from previous events and I hope pleased to see us again!

Christopher John Watts Principal Judge Home town and country: Gosport, UK Nationality: United Kingdom (GBR) Number of years sailing: 51 (racing) Number of years radio sailing: 15 years Number of years officiating (judging): 18 years Number of years officiating (judging): 18 years Different sailing classes that you’ve participated in: Fireball, 5o5, Albacore, IOR Classes 1 to 7, Melges 24, Sigma 33, Lymington Scow and in RC Classes IOM and A Class, where I still own 2 IOM and an A Class.

Number of total events officiated (approx.): Just under 100 events Number of radio yachting event(s) officiated (approx.): 2 World IOM Championships and 1 European IOM Championship.

As on previous championships that I have attended the jury is with you to not only ensure unbiased fair play, but to do so in a friendly and supportive manner. We will be relying on you to add further professionalism when you join us as observers during racing and your input will be highly valued. Providing advice on the racing rules and friendly banter will all be part of the service from the Jury!

My experience of working with sailors in the IOM Class has always been a very positive one, with the vast majority of sailors recognising breaches of the rules and immediately taking a penalty. We all look forward to the continuation of those principles and us all enjoying a magnificent World Championships in a great venue.

The very best of luck to you all.

Our esteemed jury

Gordon Davies Judge Home town and country: Bray, Co Wicklow Ireland Nationality: United Kingdom (GBR) Number of years sailing: From an early age Number of years radio sailing: xx years Number of years officiating (judging): 14 years Different sailing classes that you’ve participated in: Fireflies, Squib, Achilles 24, Dragons, First Class 8, Sigma 33, RC Laser...

Number of total events officiated (approx.): Lost count Number of radio yachting event(s) officiated (approx.): One Metre Europeans 2010 and 2014, One Metre Worlds 2011, Marblehead Worlds 2012 and 2014

28 IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA

Patrick Vilian Judge Home town and country: Dammarie les Lys - France Nationality: French (FRA) Number of years sailing: 48 years Number of years officiating (judging): 10 years Different sailing classes that you’ve participated in: Sailboard, Ponant and 470 Number of total events officiated (approx.): I was judge or race comitee on 30 events or so (national or international events) Number of radio yachting event(s) officiated (approx.): I was official on 10 french championships, 3 worldchampionship and one european championship

Gustavo Leibovici Judge

Don Martin Judge

Your home town and country: RUA HELVETIA, 661 AP 21/ 01215-010 / SÃO PAULO / SP / BRASIL Nationality: URUGUAI Number of years sailing: 40 years Number of years radio sailing: 30 years Number of years officiating (judging): 30 years Different sailing classes that you’ve participated in: STAR, LIGHTINIG, WIND SURF, MICROTONNER, LASER, SNIPE, OPTIMIST, ETC APPROX. 20 Number of total events officiated (approx.): 70 Number of radio yachting event(s) officiated (approx.): 25

Home town and country: Vancouver Canada Nationality: Canadian Number of years sailing: 60+ Number of years radio sailing: xx years Number of years officiating (judging): 50+, ISAF International Judge since 1999 Different sailing classes that you’ve participated in: Too many: Opti to ACC class Number of total events officiated (approx.): several 1000 Number of radio yachting event(s) officiated (approx.): 100+ ( as competitor/umpire)

L. Grant Baldwin Judge

Michael Gross Judge

Your home town and country: San Carlos, CA, USA Nationality: USA Number of years sailing: Grant is a lifelong racing sailor, with competitive experience in small dinghies through large ocean racers. A product of the great junior sailing program at the Newport Harbor Yacht Club, Grant sailed many national, continental, world championships and a few olympic trials in various classes. Now sailing for the StFYC, Grant spends much of his sailing time in the Finn.

Number of years officiating (judging): 6 years

Your home town and country: Capitola, California USA Nationality: USA Number of years sailing: 30 years Number of years officiating (judging): 10 years Different sailing classes that you’ve participated in: Olson 30 (ULDB keelboat). Also Santa Cruz 27, Moore 24, Santana 22, Victoria Number of total events officiated (approx.): Officiated at approximately 150 events as a Judge, Race officer, Umpire and class measurer.

Number of radio yachting event(s) officiated (approx.): Have officiated at approximately 10-12 radio events.

IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA 29

Regatta Week 2015 22 August - 30 August 22 - 23 IOM Race Days • 24 A-Class • 25 Multihull Mini 40 / 2 M 26 Open Day • 27 - 28 10R Muntanella Cup • 29 - 30 Marblehead Europa Cup

Highest radio sailing even t in th e wo rld... 1473 meter!

46° 43’ 44.99” N, 9° 33’ 25” E

www.rc-sailing.ch

An Brief Interview with

Thomas Helms CEO Vaavud

Vaavud means “wind” in Old Norse, and the product is a wind meter that plugs right into your smartphone for a great portable wind meter by all accounts.

Text Bob Wells

I first learned about it few years ago on the Sailing Anarchy website, where they fell over themselves in praise of Vaavud’s first generation called Mjolnir, and how they went about selling it worldwide with crowd sourced funding using Kickstarter. In Sailing Anarchy’s words, “… it’s incredibly accurate, ultra-light, and has stood up to the Clean Travel Abuse Test as long as any device we’ve tested. Equally important is the app that runs it – it’s clear, good looking, and easy to use, and while it’s early, the company’s worldwide, crowd sourced wind map could have amazing implications for those who like watching and using the wind”. Search “Vaavud” on the Internet for the compelling history of the idea. It is also inexpensive. I finally got around to ordering mine while I was writing this, and it is a great product. It will be useful in radio sailing to help determine when to go to the small rigs, like at Hood River Gorge. Let’s get to know one of our supporters of IOM Worlds a little better:

www.vaavud.com

Bob Wells: You’re one of co-founders of this young Danish company. Tell us a little about yourself and how you personally use Vaavud.

Thomas Helms: The idea originates from kitesurfing. We needed an easy way to check the conditions on the site when choosing which kite size to use, as well as an easy way of sharing the info with others to help then decide if they should head for the beach or not.

Bob Wells: What is the most unusual or surprising use of Vaavud.

Thomas Helms: We have actually been quite overwhelmed by the sheer variety of activities people use our wind meters for – but some of the more interesting cases include drone flying and concert production. Obviously people want to make sure that they don’t crash their new expensive drone, so many people use Vaavud as a standard part of their pre-flight check.

And when you set up a stage, speaker towers etc. there are safety requirements that dictate

maximum wind speeds, and when fine-tuning the sound wind is also a factor.

Bob Wells: Unfortunately it rains a lot in Seattle. Is there a superior case that protects my iPhone so I can use it in the rain?

Thomas Helms: Denmark can be quite rainy too, and many of our users are sailors or fishermen or similar, so we have specifically designed our new second-generation device Sleipnir, to work with the Lifeproof cases.

Sleipnir has just come on the market and has received a RedDot design award, so it’s a great looking tool too!

Bob Wells: I see a Sleipnir and Lifeproof case in my future. Thank you for supporting our Worlds.

IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA 31

Worlds Ranking Dutchman Harry Drenth has taken the IOM Worlds results from 1994 – 2013 and created his ranking system based on your four best Worlds results using the ISAF ranking method.

Country Pos 1

Name Craig Smith

FRA

NZL

MLT

CRO

CAN

AUS

FRA

BAR

GBR

ISR

Entries

55

60

80

79

82

84

76

66

76

43

Nation Rank

1994

1997

1999

2001

2003

2005

2007

2009

2011

2013

Nett

-

200 (1)

197 (2)

184 (7)

197

200

194

-

-

-

794

AUS 1

2

Graham Bantock

GBR 1

200 (1)

173 (9)

200 (1)

197 (2)

-

197 (2)

176 (10) 175 (9)

181 (8)

176 (6)

794

3

Brad Gibson

GBR 2

-

-

-

-

192 (2)

188 (6)

200 (1)

197 (2)

-

785

196 (2)

4

Martin Roberts

GBR 3

170 (9)

186 (5)

195 (3)

200 (1)

187 (6)

192 (4)

192 (4)

184 (6)

192 (4)

-

779

5

Peter Stollery

GBR 3

-

-

-

182 (8)

131 (29) 190 (5)

189 (5)

-

200 (1)

-

761

6

Zvonko Jelacic

CRO 1

-

-

-

-

-

183 (8)

186 (6)

200 (1)

184 (7)

181 (5)

753

7

Robert Walsh

GBR 4

-

-

-

-

-

8

Ante Kovacevic

CRO 2

-

96 (32)

190 (5)

164 (15) 190 (5) 187 (6)

9

-

163 (15) 190 (4)

189 (5)

200 (1)

742

180 (9)

131 (27) 178 (8)

-

172 (7)

738

-

Geoffrey Smale

NZL 1

-

196 (2)

-

180 (9)

142 (25) 76 (48)

10

Trevor Binks

GBR 6

-

-

175 (11) -

200 (1)

152 (21) 168 (13) -

14

Ken Binks

GBR 5

-

-

182 (8)

185 (7)

128 (31) 36 (63)

16

Craig Mackey

USA 1

-

-

-

-

119 (34) 154 (20) 165 (14) 160 (14) 165 (14) 148 (12)

17

Mirko Ukas

CRO 2

-

-

-

-

-

-

61 (59)

-

705

136 (25) -

695

172 (10) 121 (31) -

667

-

139 (24) 166 (12) 168 (13) 167 (8)

644 640

19

John Cleave

GBR 6

185 (5)

156 (14) 140 (25) 144 (23) 107 (39) 78 (52)

20

Torvald Klem

NOR 1

-

-

28

Soren Andresen

DEN 1

-

-

-

-

-

147 (23) 63 (53)

-

163 (15) 190 (3)

563

31

Marko Matic

CRO 3

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

187 (5)

173 (11) 195 (2)

555

32

Tony Edwards

GBR 7

-

-

-

154 (19) 136 (27) -

-

115 (29) 139 (24) -

544

34

Ian Vickers

NZL 1

-

180 (7)

-

-

178 (9)

-

176 (10) -

534

-

-

63 (46)

111 (36) 175 (11) 171 (13) 155 (18) -

-

-

-

97 (23)

625

81 (46)

-

612

37

Mario Skrlj

CRO 4

-

-

-

-

-

-

115 (33) 193 (3)

-

186 (4)

494

39

Alexis Carre

FRA 1

-

-

-

-

-

-

123 (30) 181 (7)

186 (6)

-

490

40

Robert Grubisa

CRO 5

-

-

-

116 (34) 143 (24) -

100 (39) -

131 (27) -

490

43

Robert Matulja

CRO 6

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

47

Yannick Rossignol

FRA 2

-

-

-

-

-

-

113 (34) 139 (21) 150 (20) -

32 IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA

163 (13) 152 (19) 162 (9)

477 402

This big detailed overview has about 400 skippers listed overall.

The one published here consists of the top 10 and sailors entered this Worlds.

This overview consists of all IOM World Championships results for the period from 1994 through 2013. The ranking is based on the ISAF Ranking calculation method:

You can see at a glance your overall ranking, how you rank within your country, how you placed in each Worlds, and the number of entries in each Worlds. You can have some fun pouring over this data and dreaming up “what-ifs”. I can imagine Brad Gibson musing, “What if I had attended 2013 Israel Worlds”? I can imagine the Rob Walsh musing, “I’m ranked 7th overall, but only 5th in the UK”!

Bummer Rob…

Ranking Points = E (N - P + 1) / N Where E = Event Rank (200-points for World Championships) N = Number of Entries P = Position in Championship The overall result is based on the best 4 results. This is shown in column Nett. In case of a draw the last highest result is preferred.

The full ranking is published on the IOM Worlds website, and it is worth a visit with lots of IOM content.

www.usaiomworlds.com/WorldsRanking Country Pos 51

Name Peter Allen

FRA

NZL

MLT

CRO

CAN

AUS

FRA

BAR

GBR

ISR

Entries

55

60

80

79

82

84

76

66

76

43

Nation Rank

1994

1997

1999

2001

2003

2005

2007

2009

2011

2013

-

-

-

-

75 (52)

-

-

142 (20) 171 (12) -

BAR 1

Nett 388

52

Patrice Montero

FRA 3

-

-

-

-

-

-

84 (45)

72 (43)

73 (49)

158 (10)

387

56

Boris Bakotic

CRO 7

-

-

-

-

-

-

86 (44)

-

107 (36) 153 (11)

346

62

Tony Gonsalves

BAR 2

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

63

Allan Walker

AUS 2

-

-

-

-

-

130 (30) 55 (56)

81 (40)

154 (16) 160 (16) -

314

128 (28) -

313

66

Achille Chatin

FRA 4

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

73

Olivier Cohen

FRA 5

-

-

-

-

-

-

118 (32) -

81

Claes Brunnhage

SWE 1

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

36 (55)

84 (45)

125 (17)

245

86

Vedran Vesanovic

CRO 8

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

89 (43)

139 (14)

228

91

102 (38) 116 (19)

299

155 (18) -

273

Marc Alazia

FRA 6

-

-

-

-

-

-

65 (52)

90 (37)

63 (53)

-

218

109

Stephan Cohen

USA 2

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

42 (61)

130 (16)

172

110

Huub Gillissen

NED 1

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

92 (42)

79 (27)

171

120

Marc Pomarede

FRA 7

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

157 (17) -

133

Gary Boell

USA 3

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

144 (13)

157 144

204

Carsten Posmik

GER 1

-

-

-

-

-

23 (75)

-

21 (60)

13 (72)

37 (36)

94

209

Vernon Appleton

GBR 8

-

-

-

40 (64)

51 (62)

-

-

-

-

-

91

227

Bruce Andersen

USA 5

-

-

-

-

48 (63)

-

-

33 (56)

-

-

81

237

Ricardo Pollono

ARG 1

-

-

-

-

-

-

10 (73)

66 (45)

-

-

76

245

Lindsay Walker

AUS 3

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

65 (52)

-

65

280

Dennis Rogers

USA 7

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

51 (50)

-

-

51

281

Thomas Enwall

SWE 2

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

50 (58)

-

50

304

Maurizio Morbidelli

362

Tom Olson

ITA1

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

41 (35)

41

SWE 3

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

15 (62)

-

-

15

IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA 33

Nations Ranking The Nations Ranking is based on the overall result on each nation’s best 3 competitors and the best 4 events per Nation. So it pays to have a few top finishers over a high number of finishers in this system. It is no surprise that Great Britain is first and the Australians are second, but a mild surprise that the Croatians are third. Partially it is because Croatia joins Great Britain as the only two nations to race in all ten Worlds regattas. The other reason is lately Croatia has a lot of strong competitors in Worlds.

This overview consists of all IOM World Championships results for the period from 1994 through 2013. The ranking is based on the ISAF Ranking calculation method: Ranking Points = E (N - P + 1) / N Where E = Event Rank (200-points for World Championships) N = Number of Entries P = Position in Championship The overall result per nation is based on the best 3 ranked competitors. The best 4 events per Nation are used for the Nations Ranking. This is shown in column Nett. In case of a draw the highest individual event result is preferred.

What is the highest score per event possible in this system? In an event with 76 competitors the maximum nations score will be 591 points for a clean sweep and 592 points in case there are 84 competitors in the event. So the max score in 4 events (4x a clean sweep) would be 2364 points. So the Brits have a score of almost 99%, the Aussies around 97.5% and the Croatians a well-respected 90.7%. Not bad I would say.

See the actual nations ranking on the Worlds website here:

www.usaiomworlds.com/iom-worlds-nations-ranking Country Entries Pos

Country

Nation

FRA

NZL

MLT

CRO

CAN

AUS

FRA

BAR

GBR

ISR

55

60

80

79

82

84

76

66

76

43

1994

1997

1999

2001

2003

2005

2007

2009

2011

2013

Nett

1

United Kingdom

AUS

588

519

577

579

572

579

557

549

591

473

2337

2

Australia

GBR

-

559

576

545

584

583

538

395

424

-

2302

3

Croatia

GBR

61

149

477

436

467

429

456

580

525

562

2144

4

France

GBR

493

20

472

277

121

61

478

483

498

320

1952

5

New Zealand

GBR

318

579

445

418

338

444

311

-

215

-

1886

6

Spain

CRO

-

-

460

477

141

14

533

211

-

-

1681

7

United States of America

GBR

-

-

144

-

406

412

375

390

311

422

1630

8

Italy

CRO

242

-

264

535

-

-

283

-

113

41

1324

9

Germany

NZL

410

42

260

70

-

173

198

229

235

37

1134

10

Canada

GBR

-

-

62

105

435

-

105

262

134

-

936

11

Netherlands

GBR

-

86

-

-

-

-

126

221

357

213

917

12

Barbados

USA

-

-

-

-

75

-

-

392

331

-

798

13

South Africa

CRO

-

100

-

277

70

230

191

-

81

97

798

14

Denmark

GBR

-

-

-

-

-

147

63

-

320

190

720

15

Norway

NOR

-

-

-

111

235

171

155

-

138

-

699

16

Ireland

DEN

-

-

180

162

73

119

49

193

102

-

654

17

Sweden

CRO

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

57

162

320

539

18

Israel

GBR

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

183

337

520

19

Portugal

NZL

213

13

-

118

-

-

147

-

-

-

491

20

Slovenia

CRO

-

-

102

37

163

-

157

-

-

-

459

21

Brazil

FRA

176

-

-

-

-

-

9

150

47

-

382

22

Fiji

CRO

-

359

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

359

23

Finland

CRO

-

-

-

-

97

114

118

-

-

-

329

24

Malta

FRA

138

-

152

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

290

25

Argentina

BAR

-

-

-

-

-

-

10

172

34

-

216

26

Belgium

FRA

10

-

-

2

124

-

39

-

12

-

185

27

Turkey

CRO

-

-

174

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

174

28

Switzerland

BAR

-

-

-

-

-

-

65

-

59

-

124

29

Japan

AUS

-

-

-

-

41

45

-

-

-

-

86

30

Chili

FRA

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

10

-

10

31

Romania

FRA

3

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

3

34 IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA

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The 2013 WC at Sdot Yam, Israel was incredibly beautiful and a challenge with current and waves.

IOM Class World’s History Text Bob Wells | Photo © Hanneke Gillissen, Harry Drenth (Rob Walsh)

The 2015 International One Metre (IOM) World Championship Regatta in Foster City will be our eleventh. They rotate to various countries every odd year, after our first World Championship (WC) was held in France in 1994. An IOM WC is currently the most significant regatta in radio sailing. In addition every even year IOMs have a Continental Championship, which in practice is the European Championship (EC). Just like a WC they rotate from country to country. EC’s are almost as big a deal as a WC in terms of cost and organization, but with skippers primarily hailing from Europe.

36 IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA

The IOM is a class of radio sailing yacht used for racing under the ISAF Racing Rules of Sailing, and as the name suggests this boat is one meter long. Sweden’s Jan Dejmo created the class in 1988 when he developed our rule seeking a class with wider international support. Jan thoroughly enjoyed racing the 50 inch long (1.27M) Marbleheads, and hoped to improve the situation of international radio sailing. Controlling costs and improving travel convenience had to be factors in Jan’s thinking, as was some freedom in design. To that end the IOM Class Rules specify a onedesign sail plan with some freedom in hull, fin, and bulb design by a box rule. He also wanted to allow home-built construction to be competitive with professionally built boats by employing a reasonable minimum hull weight. Twenty-seven years later the IOM is now the largest and arguably most competitive of all international radio sailing classes. Jan succeeded wildly and probably beyond his expectations.

Our International One Metre Class Association was formed in 2003 as an owners association to support the class and promote fair racing.

These important functions were originally carried out by the IRSA (International Radio Sailing Association - previously known as the ISAF-RSD). The continuing association with IRSA entitles the class to hold World Championships officially recognized by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF). In summary, IOMs are highly organized as an international radio sailing class.

Many motivated people from around the world are involved in the many areas of our class

organizations, all with the goal of fair radio sailing. Lots and lots of fair radio sailing.

Each World Championship has been memorable for more than just the sailing. What a great way to see the world and mix with locals as well as other world travelers. Travelers that have the correct focus – radio sailing and having some fun. Worlds are the bi-annual culmination of many global regattas and National championships with a long selection process to first determine the hosting country and then the lucky participants. Let’s briefly recap each past IOM Worlds Championship:

1994 WC at Saint Cyr, France: With over 1,000 IOMs in existence, there was enough class momentum for France to host our first World Championship in 1994 in the inland City of Saint Cyr. The event was well contested with 55 participants from 11 countries, although it was almost exclusively Europeans sailing. Great Britain’s Graham Bantock won his first WC with his Red Wine design that he designed to the anticipated light wind. Graham later noted in his writings, “The designs of the time were all heavily influenced by the recent wave of narrow and successful Marbleheads”.

Incidentally GBR swept the podium, and in 2011 GBR accomplished that rare feat again – the only podium sweeps to date.

closely followed around the world. The regatta grew slightly to 60 skippers from 10 countries, and we had a healthier mix of northern and southern hemisphere skippers. Strong winds dominated with occasional squalls, as did the TS2 and other very wide hull shapes with skiff decks that allowed the masts to be lowered depowering the rigs. Aussie Craig Smith with his well-prepared TS2 won his first Worlds in this hotly contested regatta over New Zealander Geoff Smale sailing a 2 Dogs. New Zealander Trevor Banforth placed third with another TS2. Their advantage was they could carry their rigs higher into the wind range.

1999 WC at Malta:

The Worlds moves back to Europe for the 1999 Championships to Malta’s Ramla Bay on the Mediterranean Sea, where the fleet has grown to 80 boats from 18 nations in this exotic location. Graham Bantock sailed consistently in A-fleet the entire regatta to win his 2nd IOM Worlds sailing his heavily flared new design called Ikon. Craig Smith closed nicely to finish a distant second place with his TS2, and GBR’s Martin Roberts sailing his narrow beamed Widget dropped to third on the last day, after competing with Bantock for first through much of the regatta. Influenced by the TS2’s success the new IOM designs, including Ikon, were beamy, but less so than the TS2 for improved performance in light air downwind.

1997 WC at Wellington, The features common to these new designs

New Zealand: IOMs have a significant presence in radio sailing included a lowered mast position and a raised or heavily cambered foredeck. now and our second World Championship was

IOM Worlds Podium Event

Country

Competitors Gold

Silver

Bronze

2013

Israel Scott Yam

43

Rob Walsh GBR, BritPOP!

Marko Matic CRO, Kantun S

Soren Andresen DEN, Cheinz

2011

United Kingdom West Kirby

76

Peter Stollery GBR, BritPOP!

Brad Gibson GBR, BritPOP!

Graham Elliott GBR, BritPOP!

2009

Barbedos

66

Zvonko Jelaciv CRO, Pikanto

Brad Gibson AUS, Widget

Mario Skrlj CRO, Topiko

2007

France Marseille

76

Brad Gibson AUS, Widget

Guillermo Beltri ESP, Italiko

Craig Smith AUS, Obsession

2005

Australia Mooloolaba

84

Craig Smith AUS, Obsession

Graham Bantock GBR, Topiko

Paul Jones AUS, Cockatoo

2003

Canada Vancouver

82

Trevor Binks GBR, Isis

Craig Smith AUS, TS2

Paul Jones AUS, Disco

2001

Croatia Omisalj

79

Martin Roberts GBR, Gadget

Graham Bantock GBR, Ikon

Gary Cameron AUS, TS2

1999

Malta

80

Graham Bantock GBR, Ikon

Craig Smith AUS, TS2

Martin Roberts GBR, Widget

1997

New Zealand Wellington

60

Craig Smith AUS, TS2

Geoffrey Smale NZL, 2 Dogs

Trevor Bamford NZL, TS2

1994

France Saint Cyr

55

Graham Bantock GBR, Red Wine

Chris Dicks GBR, Metrick Magick

Mark Dicks GBR, Crossbow

IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA 37

2001 WC at Omisalj, Croatia:

YachtsandYachting.com summarized the action, “The lead changed several times with wind ‘streams’ favoring both skippers at different The IOM Worlds stays in Europe but moves east a little to the coastal island City of Omisalj times, however it was on the final run down to the lee mark that Trevor pulled away and with 79 skippers from 15 nations competing. crossed the line in 12th place leaving Craig Lester Gilbert reported, “The Omisalj venue Smith in 18th that the Gold Medal was secured. was attractive, scenic, and well suited. An Ken Binks, Trevor’s elder brother was in bronze entire water-side hotel, disused but in fine medal position until weed on the pen-ultimate working order, provided the veranda, interior race slowed progress and took him to seventh rooms, and space needed for competitors place. The Host Nation’s top skipper, Peter Van and officials alike. Amazing!” After six days Rossem came 8th. But it was old adversaries of tight sailing, GBR’s Martin Roberts won his World Championship sailing a Gadget designed GBR and Australia that occupied most of the top ten places GBR (3) and AUS (4) Croatia’s

by Mark Dicks. A close second was Graham Ante Kovacevic in 5th and New Zealand’s Bantock sailing his Ikon and third was Aussie Geoff Smale in 9th. Martin Roberts (GBR) the TS2 designer, Gary Cameron with his TS2. previous World Champion was in joint 6th Martin Roberts was on a tear with his Gadget position with Ken Binks separated on ‘count during this period, also winning the European Championships in 2000 in Saint Cyr and 2002 in back’ using number of ‘firsts’ in the 22 race series. The World Championships was organized Fleetwood, UK. under the ISAF RSD ‘umbrella’ and was without doubt the best organized since the IOM class

2003 WC at Vancouver, inception in 1988. The Royal Vancouver Yacht Canada: Club is to be congratulated for a superb event.”

The Worlds came to Western Canada with 82 skippers from 16 countries sailing in English Bay from the pier of the Royal Vancouver Yacht 2005 WC at Mooloolaba, Club. Sailing in saltwater with weed and strong Australia: currents was a challenge, and more so in light The Worlds returned to the southern air. GBR’s Trevor Binks won his Worlds with an hemisphere and this time it was on Kawana Isis that featured an innovative and very fast Waters on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, swing arm winch.

Australia. It was often a high-wind affair in

The 2011 WC at West Kirby, UK, where No. 39 Peter Stollery and No. 42 Brad Gibson were tied beginning the last race and Peter came from behind to garner his World Champion title.

Photo © Hanneke Gillissen

38 IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA

small rigs with 84 skippers from 13 countries.

Even in 3-rig there were squall periods when it was very difficult to tack. Australian Craig Smith matches Graham Bantock by winning his second world championship, but this time he was sailing his new and well-prepared Obsession. Craig’s new design moderated max beam from his TS2, but still his stability was more than the competitive boats of the day and the hull narrowed at waterline allowing him to be close enough with light air performance. Graham Bantock finished a very close second with his latest design called Topiko. Aussie Paul Jones finished third in a Cockatoo designed by Jeff Byerley.

2007 WC at Marseilles, France: Continuing the trend the Worlds returned to the Northern Hemisphere where Yachting Club Pointe Rouge hosted our World Championship in Marseille. The Venue was in an enclosed harbor two miles north of their facilities. 76 skippers from a record 21 countries sailed in variable conditions from light to top end of rigs.

Up to this point all the Worlds events were recognized as being very close and competitive, but this regatta upped the ante. The outcome for the top three was undecided until the last race. Aussie Brad Gibson sailing a Widget that he famously assembled from a Dave Creed kit

Croatian Ante Kovacevic has missed only two WC’s and has sailed well to be 4th in total WC points.

2001 IOM World Champion Martin Roberts from the UK has missed only one WC and has amassed the most total WC points of all competitors with consistently good sailing.

1994 and 1999 IOM World Champion Graham Bantock from the UK has missed only one WC and has amassed the second most total WC points of all competitors with consistently good sailing.

Photos © Hanneke Gillissen

to follow vicariously from afar – go to their MYA website to relive this event. For the first time one significant design, the Britpop, swept the podium; the only three built at the time.

YachtsandYachting.com summarized the final race action, “The other 2 BritPOPs were in the 2009 WC at Barbados: hands of pre-race favourite Brad Gibson and The IOM Worlds moved across the Atlantic to MYA Chairman Peter Stollery. Over the last 3 the island nation of Barbados with 66 skippers days only a few points ever separated the pair from 15 nations. Coatia’s Zvonko Jelacic won at the head of the fleet board and in several his championship with a stellar performance races they engaged in match racing each other with his Croatian built Pikanto, leading a strong within the fleet. The final race watched by a contingent from his small country with four finishing in the top ten. GBR also had four in the sizeable crowd and which they started equal on points, was a classic… Peter went on to clinch top ten. Aussie Brad Gibson continued to sail the championship with a last race win to Brads his Widget well with second place, and young Croatian Mario Skrlj placed third with his Croatian 4th, taking the event with a total score of 56 built Topiko. YachtsandYachting.com summarized, with Brad as deserved runner up on only 59 points for the 21 scoring races. “…sailed on the open sea in Carlisle Bay. This Considering his involvement with event really was a champagne venue of sun, sea and sand with brisk easterly breezes requiring A and organisation and his minimum pre-race practise this was a remarkable win for the 2011 IOM mostly B rigs. The 66 boats were split into 5 heats using 6-boat promotion, providing time for World Champion Peter Stollery.” a refreshing dip between heats.” Looking at the photos you needed lots of sun cream, for your dips in these turquoise waters..

2013 WC at Sdot Yam, Israel From the most dominate of IOM counties, the Worlds moved to one of our newer IOM countries, Israel. Sdot Yam Sailing Club, which 2011 WC at West Kirby, UK: is in a beautiful spot on the Med, hosted a fleet The WC finally comes to the UK, which of 43 skippers from 9 countries. This event was as a country has been such a force in the well undersold, and the culprit was erupting development of the IOM and a hotbed for civil war in nearby Syria. Unfortunately you competition within the class. 76 skippers from 22 countries participated, and they were tested can’t plan for everything. In Graham Bantock’s words, “Those that did attend enjoyed some over a range of conditions at Marine Lake on spectacular sailing in the early part of the the edge of the Irish Sea. This ideal venue week where ability to sail well in large and allowed unusually long courses with steady sometimes breaking waves was essential. Later wind. Notably there was a midweek visit by in the week a change in wind direction led to the UK’s Model Yacht Association Patron, HRH the course being moved to an area where the Prince Phillip, just prior to his 90th. This pomp waves were less regular and wind and current was part of the 100 year MYA anniversary. less predictable. Nevertheless the top sailors Media tends to focus on Worlds regattas, but here it set a new high standard making it easy continued to cope well with the conditions, placed first, followed by Spaniard Guillermo Beltri sailing a borrowed Topiko. Craig Smith placed third sailing his Obsession again.

2007 IOM World Champion Brad Gibson from the UK has missed five Worlds, but he is amassing points at an unprecedented clip thanks to top finishes. Brad has the third most total WC points of all competitors.

especially the Croatians who provided 6 of the top 10 places”. GBR’s Rob Walsh sailing a Britpop he purchased used from Spain won the event, which was in doubt into the last day. Croatian Marko Matic finished a strong second with his KantunS, and Denmark’s Soren Andresen rounded out the podium with his best ever WC sailing his Cheinz. Brad Gibson’s Britpop wins another Worlds, and significantly he has now influenced all the top IOM designers to adopt narrow hull forms with full ends and chines in some form. The IOM design evolutions continue. Croatia’s Mirko Ukas is an outlier at this regatta by finishing 8th with his Pikanto - the only moderate beam design in the top 19.

Earlier in this magazine you saw Harry Drenth’s Worlds Ranking list, which he has shortened here to include only this year’s Worlds competitors. It is always fun to compare past results. If you count them all, thirty-one different countries have had skippers compete at the Worlds. An International class indeed!

Check out Harry’s table listing the entries by country. Australia has had the most individual or “unique” Worlds competitors and GBR has the highest total number of entries. There would be many more GBR “unique” skippers, but with so many top GBR skippers a number get dropped during allocation. France is third in total entries and close by in fourth is little Croatia, where they take radio sailing seriously.

In life just showing up regularly is a big part of the battle, but a few skippers have done more than just show up a lot. Croatia’s Ante Kovacevic stands out as he has sailed well in all his Worlds regattas, missing only two.

However, there are two guys that have only missed one of our IOM Worlds Regattas and performed extremely well – the UK’s Graham

IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA 39

Bantock and Martin Roberts. As competitors these two sailmaker’s and World Champions have raced in the more WCs than anybody and finished consistently high so they have far and away the most total Worlds points in Harry’s Ranking list. Martin is apparently not attending this WC, but he is currently on top for points with his remarkable consistency where is always finishes in the top ten, and usually in the top five. Graham is no slouch here as he also always finishes in the top ten too, but by

Harry’s math (Harry would call it an algorithm) Martin has a few more points. Ante is a solid fourth overall in total points, behind sailmaker and World Champion Brad Gibson. Brad may have missed five Worlds regattas, but with his excellent finishes he is gathering points at a faster clip than anybody right now. Brad is most everybody’s pre-race favorite, but the margin for this championship is very thin and a number of skippers have legitimate shots to win.

Of course Worlds regattas are so much more than points and who won. What a radio sailing trip it has been so far for you guys. I hope to hear some of your stories at this coming Worlds. And I wish you many more.

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IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA 41

What to do in

Foster City Foster City is a planned urban city on San Francisco Bay of about 30,000 people built on tidelands in the 1960s, back when you could get permits to do that sort of thing.

Golden Gate Bridge

Photo Marin Headlands

Alcatraz Island

Photo D Ramey Logan

Text Larry Stiles

As a planned city it mixes low height residential living, parks, and canals close to significant commercial buildings. Many corporations have their headquarters here. It feels like the dense young city that it is; and it is a lively and clean place. Roads are full of traffic, but everything keeps moving to the pace controlled by traffic lights. I like how they have man-made canals snaking through miles of residential areas.

Forbes magazine ranked Foster City #10 on their 2009 list of “America’s Top 25 Towns to Live Well”, and she places well in other rankings in other magazines too. Part of it has to be the mild Mediterranean weather with warm dry summers, and cool wet winters. Unfortunately winters have not been typically wet lately, so do your part and control your water usage.

With an average home cost of about $1,000,000, it is not an inexpensive life style.

I find it a great place to visit in shorts and to radio sail on Central Lake in dependable winds.

on concierge recommendations and the Internet to find them, and the GPS feature on my smart phone gets me there. You will want to drive to most restaurants from our sailing venue, but there are a few you can reasonably walk to located NW of the Courtyard by Marriot lobby. I have a tip for breakfast – Hobee’s Restaurant, www. hobees.com. You’ll find it next to the Motel 6 – Belmont that is off of Highway 101, aka The Bayshore Freeway, south of our venue about 15-20 minutes. This is Craig Mackey and Joe Damico’s favorite place to stay and have breakfast when sailing on Central Lake. As you leave, the big sleek cylindrical building on your right is Larry Ellison’s Oracle Corporation, and in the pond you can see the 90’ x 90’ USA–17 fixed on display as if she is taking flight. This behemoth was the 2010 America’s Cup winner in Valencia, Spain, and the only trimaran to race in the Americas Cup to date, where she won two whole races before being retired.

After your hotel one of the first things you will be looking for are restaurants. I rely

Foster City has a very respectable selection of services and activities available in

42 IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA

the immediate area. Check out www. fostercityfun.com. Two things that stand out for me are The Bay Trail, www.baytrail.org and the Hiller Air Museum, www.hiller.org.

I’m a nut for old airplanes and wooden boats.

Our sailing venue, Central Lake, is the center of a sprawling city park that is a great place to relax after sailing. At the south end of our sailing venue are boat and paddleboard rentals that will get you out on the lake in real time and at the north end is the spacious recreation building that has been made available for us to store our boats in. Check out what else is happening there. The Oceanic Foot Spa is nearby and I’m told it gets rave reviews. A reservation might help you get over that bad tack that dropped you out of the A-Fleet.

If you want to get out of town and see some of the country side, I would recommend getting onto Highway 92 and head west, through San Mateo and up into the hills.

This used to be a dusty 2-lane road, but I understand that’s all changed now. Keep heading west between Upper and Lower Crystal Springs Reservoirs, then all the way to

Cable car San Francisco

Elegant Lagoon Foster City

Half Moon Bay at Highway 1. That big blueness to the west is the Pacific Ocean, and just past that is Japan. From here you can either double back or head north to Pacifica then east to San Bruno or south to San Gregorio then east to La Honda and Redwood City on Highway 84.

It is said that you can be air dropped anywhere in San Francisco and if you can’t find a great place to eat, interesting things to see and do and are not totally blown away by the shear beauty of the place, then you must have died on impact. I was born, raised and spent most of my professional life in the Bay Area so you’ll have to excuse my enthusiasm.

San Francisco is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California.and is a world class tourist destination. San Francisco is known for its cool summers, evening fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of architecture; and landmarks that include the Golden Gate Bridge, the cable cars, the former prison on Alcatraz Island, and its Chinatown district.

Check out www.sanfrancisco.travel. This should wet your appetite big time. Just a couple of things to remember; First, San Francisco is small and compact. Drive west, north or east and you hit the water. Drive south and you hit Daly City. You can’t get lost and nothing is very far from anything. Second, San Francisco has one of the best public transportation systems in the country. If possible, park the car and take either Bart, www.bart.gov, The Metro, www.sfmta.com, a Cable Car, www.sfcablecar.com or a Ferry Boat, www.goldengateferry.org/schedules.

Hamilton wetlands

They are a treat in themselves.

When I lived in Contra Costa County I used to take Bart to work in The City and then the California Street Cable Car up to my customers on Knob Hill. A few recommendations would be Golden Gate Park, including the California Academy of Sciences, The DeYoung Museum, and Spreckels Lake, home of the historic San Francisco Model Yacht Club. Ride the Cable Car; my favorite is the Powell / Hyde Street line. It will take you from Aquatic Park up Russian Hill across to China Town, Nob Hill and down to Union Square and then to Market Street where it will be turned around by hand and headed back the way it came. Not to be missed. The Embarcadero, from Pier 39 to the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park is almost a day trip onto itself. Lots of boats and sea food. At fisherman’s Wharf you can catch the ferry to Sausalito, where after more food you can hike a few blocks north on Bridgeway, past the House Boat where Fleetwood Mac hung out and composed Rumors in 1977, past ungated marinas full of old wooden boats, to The Bay Model, www.spn.usace.army.mil/Missions/

Recreation/BayModelVisitorCenter.aspx.

As the name implies, the Bay Model is a model of The Bay Area covering from the Pacific Ocean to the Sacramento and San Joaquin deltas. It was built in 1957 by the Core of Engineers to study the hydraulics of the bay waters. It is almost as large as 2 football fields and it’s all indoors. Ya gotta see it.

If you happen to have any money left after enjoying The City, you might be thinking of a day trip up to the wine country. Be warned that it will be a full days trip, so plan to start early and get back late - if you get back before dark it means that didn’t stay up there long enough. From the City of Napa heading north or west you can’t swing cat without hitting something having to do with fine wine or great eating. Peruse www.napavalley.com.

All wines are measured against those of Napa and Sonoma County’s. To drive there is straightforward, about 80 miles depending on the route and you’ll no longer be able to call yourself a complete stranger to the North Bay area.

“…you might be thinking of a day trip up to the wine country. Be warned that it will be a full days trip, so plan to start early and get back late - if you get back before dark it means that didn’t stay up there long enough.

From the City of Napa heading north or west you can’t swing cat without hitting something having to do with fine wine or great eating.”

IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA 43

My personal road trip suggestion for you:

Napa Valley Wine Country

Napa Country

Beginning at Foster City, head to Highway 80 toward the Bay Bridge and the East Bay. Before you head out over the water look right, south and you’ll see AT&T Park, home of the Giants and look left, north and you’ll see the south end of the Embarcadero and the Ferry Building. Half way across is Yerba Buena Island and attached to it is Treasure Island. Treasure Island is a 400-acre manmade island built on top a navigation hazard called Yerba Buena Sholes, completed in 1937 for the Golden Gate International Exposition and then taken over by the Navy in 1941. From there you’re onto the new section of the Bay Bridge. This spectacular piece of construction has replaced the old cantilevered section, which was damaged in the 1989 earthquake. And it’s taken this long to replace it.

intersection. Highway 29 will swing to the west and then north again where it combines with Highway 121 coming from the west.

Remember this intersection too. Once you’re past the City of Napa you are in the Napa Valley Wine Country. The funnel shaped valley runs in an almost perfect SE to NW direction with Highway 29 going along western side and the Silverado Trail on the eastern side.

The towns with all their attractions are along Highway 29, leaving the Silverado Trail the much more relaxed and scenic route of the two. The small town of Calistoga is at the north of the valley, the small end of the funnel, while the City of Napa marks the larger south end. I suggest you enjoy the wineries and world-class restaurants going up the valley on 29 and relax and soak up the countryside coming down the Trail.

When you hit land follow the signs that will keep you on highway 80 heading north. Off to your right you’ll see Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond and Hercules, named after the company that made Dynamite there until 1976, and then on to Crockett, which is still home to C&H Sugar. The Carquinez Strait Bridge takes you over the combined waters of the Sacramento, San Joaquin and about 20 other significant rivers. They have more water by volume that the mighty Columbia River. Then you’re back on land again, in Vallejo, and I want you to take the off-ramp to Highway 29. This takes you northwest along the Napa River across which you will see Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, a very active place until after the Vietnam War. Yards in Vallejo, Richmond, Oakland and Alameda built thousands of ships during WWII. Many times hundreds of war ships would be riding at anchor just south of the Bay Bridge in the moonlight, and the next morning they would all be gone.

Continue straight north towards the City of Napa you will see the intersection with highway 12 heading west. Remember this

My favorite spot in the Valley is not a winery.

It’s the Napa Valley Olive Oil Co. located at 835 Charter Oak St in St. Helena. They have about everything you can think of having to do with Italian food, salami, antipasti and most of all, olive oil. www.oliveoilsainthelena.com.

No. I don’t own stock in this enterprise.

Time to get back to the hotel? You have some decisions to make, because you are a long way from Foster City with no quick way back. At this point I will interject that if you have been drinking, don’t drive - Period. This is where a designated driver comes in really handy, and perhaps a designated navigator too with a GPS. That said, the least long way back is south on 29 to Napa. Just past Napa catch Highway 12 heading east. This is a rather long but straight shot to Highway 80 heading south back to Vallejo. From there just back track.

If on the other hand it’s not too late and you’re still in the mood for adventure, I have an idea for you that will add about 15 miles and take a little extra time. Head south on 29 and just

Napa Valley Olive Oil Co.

past Napa turn west onto highway 121. Take 121 west until it tee’s with highway 116. Turn left / south, you’ll still be on 121 which will, after some miles, merge into Highway 37 at the Sonoma Raceway. Looking south off to your left, you will see San Pablo Bay. Highway 37 will cross the Petaluma River and go straight as a shot and drop you onto Highway 101 at Novato heading south.

While it is true that this is the same highway 101 that we started out on and it is also true that that if you just stay on course and follow the signs you will get back to Foster City. It is also true that highway 101 will dump you out onto the city surface streets for a bit, but fear not! The stories about people from Oakland being lost for days in Pacific Heights are not true. Great improvements have been made.

The surface streets we’re talking about are 6 lanes wide and you will be picked up and put back onto the highway again. You’ll be fine.

And if you do get lost the natives are usually quite friendly and often speak English, and there’s always your GPS. The very up side to going this way is that you will cross the Golden Gate Bridge and with any kind of luck at all you will be treated to a view you will never forget.

Take exit 442 off 101 just south of Sausalito.

There are vista points on either side of the bridge. The west side is my favorite. Don’t miss this exit. The next stop is the Presidio in San Francisco.

Herb Caen, the Pulitzer Prize winning columnist, called San Francisco “Baghdad by the Bay”.

Truer words were never spoken. Everything that’s anything can be found here. Anyone who is anybody has spent time here, where the street names read like poetry. To my eye it is still the most beautiful city in the world. Come, explore, taste and enjoy. Stay awhile and you too will leave a piece of your heart.

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SAILSetc 46 IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA

Interview with Germany’s

Henning Faas, our new IRSA Publicity Man Text Bob Wells | Photos Hanneke Gillissen

I know nothing of Henning Faas but our International Radio Sailing Association (IRSA) Chairman Lester Gilbert tells me that he is responsible for the slick new IRSA website and the new IRSA logo. Both are very impressive so Henning is off to a great start at IRSA as Publicity Officer. Let’s get to know Henning better and learn more about IRSA in the process.

For the record Henning’s English is understandable, but I cleaned it up a little with his permission: Bob Wells: I looked it up and in the 2014 M Worlds you finished 16 out of 68 recently in the Netherlands, which gives you some serious cred for knowing your way around a radio sailing course. It wasn’t a fluke because I see you finished 22nd at the 2012 M Worlds.

How did you end up with a Brad Gibson designed Anarchy M. Henning Faas: I started radio sailing in the 1980s in the M and X-class. My

first international event was the 1982 “Wolfgangsee Regatta” in Austria, at that time under the control of Naviga. From around 1995 to 2008 I sailed Scalpels on many national and international events with good results, but it was always a problem to beat the designer and builder Janusz Walicki with a Scalpel. So I changed from Scalpel to a Dave Creed built Starkers and then a short stint with the Crazy Tube, which were really big changes after 10 years of sailing the Scalpel. One year before

the 2012 M Worlds I had the opportunity to buy the Anarchy from Stefan Kreiss, who bought it from Brad after the 2006 M Worlds in Fleetwood. My good result in the 2012 Worlds was achieved during the first 3 days where we had wind between A and B-rig, the best conditions for the Anarchy. On the last days of the event we had very light and patchy breeze, and I lost my good position. During the following two years I made a number of changes to the boat and especially the rigs (with many emails between Brad and myself).

In that process I built 8 suits of A sails looking to improve performance in light conditions.

Then after more talks, Brad built number 9 for me and that created the drive needed in the mostly light wind conditions in Gouda in 2014.

This allowed me to stay among the top 20.

The journey with Anarchy is not over yet and it’s still fun to race the boat. Many thanks at this point to Brad who has tirelessly supporting me with advice.

Bob Wells: M’s are cool boats. What IOM designs do you sail?

Henning Faas: I admit that initially I was not that interested in the IOM, but I found the IOM construction guides fascinating and wanted to

IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA 47

build a boat myself. In 2006 I built the Noux, and sailed some races without matching the enthusiasm I have for Ms. I wanted to participate in the 2013 UK Nationals at Fleetwood, my absolute favorite playground, so in 2012 I got the short kit Dave Creed offers and assembled a Lintel. Unfortunately, I had a lot of bad luck in the race and had multiple winch and servo failures, and my IOM experience was disappointing again. To resolve this matter once and for all I ordered a Britpop in 2014 and attended some regattas. This boat provided the good feeling and similar success to what I had when sailing my M-boat. I’ve decided my IOM disinterest was not to be due to the class, but more my attitude towards it. This year I am enthusiastically looking for a new IOM challenge, and I have exchanged my Britpop for a Fraktal built in Germany by RC-Sailfriends from SAILSetc moulds. We’ll see what comes of it.

Bob Wells: OK, you have been a tough sell on IOMs, but you’re getting there and you didn’t give up. Tell us more about your local sailing club.

Henning Faas: I am the chairman of the “Vereinigung der Modellyachtsegler VdMYS” sailing club which is not a club in the usual sense. The VdMYS has about 200 members and about 10 bases spread over Germany.

Firstly the club serves as a way to become a member of DSV the German sailing association and secondly provides organizational and

financial support for most of the ranking races held in Germany. As Chairman, it is almost mandatory to participate in many races in Germany. A year ago, I also became a member of a dinghy club in my personal sailing club Biblis. This club is probably one of the best RC sailing venues in Germany but unfortunately we have a very small group of RC sailors. Members sail the Cat, Laser or Finn dinghy for which they hold championships. I became a member in order to strengthen and establish an RC sailing group with the aim to possibly hold an international championship at this venue in the future. This year Biblis is the venue for the Open German Marblehead Nationals hopefully attracting a number of international skippers.

Bob Wells: Before we get to IRSA, I see you are involved in the organizing of radio sailing in Germany. This article got me to take another look your websites and they are terrific.

I suppose you had something to do with these too? I especially appreciate the English translation button.

Henning Faas: Yes you are right, I have developed many websites for radio sailing in Germany. As mentioned before I am the chairman of the “Vereinigung der Modellyachtsegler” which was the first website I made back in 1996 www.vdmys. de. Later I developed www.radiosailing.de for German Radio Sailing and the site for the German IOM NCA, which is now part of the

German radiosailing class association www. dkvrcs.de. I started another website two years ago my friend Thomy Blatter from Switzerland, www.rc-sailing.ch.

I have been involved in the German radio sailing association since 2000, starting with the website. Today I am the deputy chairman beside Nigel Winkley, who is still the chairman and responsible for all public relations of the association. The German radio sailing website is frequently visited with around 30,000 page views a month (more than my company’s page). This started around 2008 when I began to publish many historical articles that I found in magazines about radio sailing and free sailing in Germany. As is so often the case the whole thing very quickly took off and became a self-runner. Other sailors started going through their collections and soon I had more articles than I could publish. I still have some interesting material lying on my desk that will be released soon. Gradually also sailors from other European countries got interested in the content of this page, so I was looking for a way to provide access to the articles and help without actually translating everything. The technique currently used for this is the Google translation service. Sure these automatic translations are often not very accurate with technical terms, but mostly the translation is sufficient to get an understanding of the content. The Google translation service is always evolving and now delivers a much better result than even a few years ago.

Our new IRSA Publicity Officer Henning Faas with his favorite Marblehead – the BG designed Anarchy.

IRSA WORLD RADIO SAILING

48 IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA

Bob Wells: It appears you are a busy guy, so how often do you actually get out to sail, and what classes do you sail the most?

Henning Faas: I just take a look on my personal sailing calendar for 2015 and it has 30 events listed, the 2014 calendar had 32 events and around 15.000km of traveling.

Yes, a lot of sailing and long distances, but when you have a look at the results this is not enough. I have no local training area and so I have to go to sailing events to meet others and to sail. On the other hand my friend, Nigel, and I have started visiting 3 to 4 events in the UK beginning in 2012. This has brought us to a new level in sailing plus many new friends. Additional events come from the close

by European countries Switzerland and France; and last year we had our first visit to Italy on Lake Garda. The primary class that I sail is the Marblehead class. But I also sail the Ten Rater with my own design that I developed together with a friend. I have also sailed A-Class boats but we do not have enough competition in Europe. If this all is not enough I can always sail my IOM. Bob Wells: Nice radio sailing schedule, you’ve got your priorities on target. Does your wife join you on these trips?

Henning Faas: Rarely does my wife, Pekie, accompany me at RC sailing. We have very different hobbies with Pekie very active in Tae Kwon Do, and so our schedules usually conflict.

But if there is a race combined with a holiday, we have enjoyed traveling on a few of those.

Bob Wells: What were the most impressive events you have participated in?

Henning Faas: The last two M Worlds in Gouda and Ploermel were quite exceptional.

They were my first World Championships and two events that I placed closer to the top. From entering many historical results of international championships on our website over time, I knew most of the names of the other participants even though I had not sailed with them. After the 2012 Worlds, we had begun to sail in England more often, and our intimidation by the level of competition is lessening.

The most impressive event that I have ever sailed in was the 2012 UK Marblehead Championship in Fleetwood. I love the area and the people, but the event was very special for me that year. I had just gotten my new Anarchy and during this event we used all 6 rigs. Mostly we sailed with the smallest B2 rigs in a “storm”. Even more impressive than the wind and the conditions was, as always, the quality of participants with at least five former or current World Champions. For 3 days Brad Gibson showed us all how it is done

sailing his new Grunge. BG was winning each of his heats with as much as a leg lead. I think that was my greatest experience in sailing so far.

and the underlying OnePager with supporting explanations. The last important aspect was to have our site display optimally on mobile devices.

Bob Wells: Any new crazy creative IOM designs coming from Jochen Burhenne?

Henning Faas: I have not seen the latest design by Jochen, but I’m sure it will continue to be very interesting. Jochen’s unique designs have not yet reached a high performance level, but that is coming. We have some other boat builders in Germany who also work on interesting developments or simply build beautiful designs entirely in wood. You will hear about some of them soon. The IOM class development in northern Germany is growing as “Sail Friends” progresses. In the Marblehead scene there is a brand new boat called “Jethrail”, a very nice design from the workshop of Andy Finger. Everyone is looking forward to the 2015 season.

Bob Wells: Yikes that did get geeky! Do you want to explain how the claim, World Radio Sailing, came about?

Henning Faas: The basis of a good communication is to develop key messages – the verbal “pictures” that express and stand for the organization. Co-ordinated with these key messages is the vision -- the overview of what the organization does. The essence of the communication concept is the claim -- an extremely short version of what the organization stands for. We initially had several key messages developed in the network between classes, organization, rules, and our stakeholders (e.g. IRSA operates publicly and transparently, adopts a long term perspective, consults with its stakeholders…). In the next step, we compress them into a vision: “IRSA is the worldwide radio sailing organization as an affiliated member of ISAF. IRSA is dedicated to the enhancement of both current and emerging world radio sailing classes through the promotion and development of consistent class rules, measurement methods, radio yachting racing rules, and advice in running major racing events.” Taken together, this is the tonality and character for all further editorial developments.

Finally, we felt that the essence of the claim was established for what we were seeking.

One might think that we have simply taken the ISAF slogan and inserted the word “radio”.

It was not that easy. Anyone who has read our vision sees our relationship to ISAF as fundamental. And of course the essence of ISAF is “World Sailing”. However, the core essence of IRSA’ is “Radio Sailing”. In order to connect the two slogans we came up with “WORLD RADIO SAILING”. We did indeed have discussions of alternatives but could not find a more appropriate slogan. In retrospect, it sounds so simple, but the process was not easy.

Bob Wells: I read on your IRSA website bio (Go to: About/Exec Committee/Officers) that you’re an IT professional specializing in Internet communications. It shows because the new www.radiosailing.org website is terrific.

It is tasteful, uncluttered, and graceful to move around in. And seemingly it all happened a few months after you became Publicity Officer.

Henning Faas: The development of the new IRSA website started many months ago when I joined the CEEFIE team. A stronger focus on classes was an issue, and it was clear that there would be some change. Another group founded during the worlds in Gouda 2014 is dealing with the development of the Marblehead class with various stimuli for their new website. In addition, we have experience from our German website development that was useful. Next we have, as usual in such projects, made a target group analysis and the integration of social media.

After the completion of the new logo and our claim “WORLD RADIO SAILING” we needed additional components for the new website. After the last General Meeting in May 2014, I visited the site often to see new developments documented by the new officers. However, I could hardly find new content so I had the impression the thing had fallen asleep again. When I joined IRSA in early December we had access to the forum, but a lot of the website needed updates and I have worked intensely on them. For example the communication of news is one of our most important areas to have functioning. The final component was the integration of features that motivate visitors to explore our site so we can promote radio sailing. To get geeky for a moment, this was in the form of Image Sliders

Bob Wells: I noticed your website was graceful to move round in, from the first visit.

How did you allow yourself to be co-opted as the IRSA Publicity Officer? That’s a lot like doing your day job on nights and weekends for IRSA. Henning Faas: I love our sport RC sailing very much and I have no complicated considerations when someone asks if I can help somehow. Of course, it is particularly easy if you can help within your own field, but there are considerable differences between my daily work and my IRSA responsibilities.

I was recently very intensively engaged in

IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA 49

The new IRSA website is in seven languages including Croatian and Portuguese, and conversion is with a simple click on a flag.

Wow, that is very appropriate for world radio sailing. Was that a difficult task?

Henning Faas: No the new website is completely in English but as on the German site I have included the Google translation service. This may not be the perfect solution but it offers the possibility to grasp the page content for non-English speaking visitors.

Especially in terms of promotion thought this is a very useful feature. By the way it is possible to add more languages please contact me directly if something is missing.

Henning Faas on the right with Graham Bantock, and I’m sure they are not discussing IRSA business, although both are on the Executive Committee.

marketing my business, but there were also many synergies with the activities of Publicity Officer. Frankly, the IRSA part at night and on weekends is much more fun.

Bob Wells: Somebody understands branding, because the new IRSA logo relates nicely to the long established ISAF logo. Readers will see them both in the header when you open the IRSA website. How did the new logo come about?

Henning Faas: As luck would have it I was ill in early December just as I began to consider the logo. Problems with my back provided me two uninterrupted weeks to develop the logo. First, I hung about 100 logos from different areas of sailing on a bulletin board.

My first idea was to develop a smaller symbol that can be used more than once within the logo. After a few attempts it was clear that I needed to simplify as everything else was too delicate and would not be easy to print. The arrangement of our small sailboats corresponds with how one knows the ISAF logo. I also wanted a logo that could be used with different lettering configurations for flexibility in event publicity. ISAF remained the role model for color as we use the same blue ISAF color, but we have added our own accent color. I presented a set of design concepts to the Executive Committee for discussion. From there, we were able to consolidate it to three versions. These three designs were sent to all our national members with a request for suggestions or amendments. In late February we voted to approve the new Logo. On the website we have a complementary design guide that defines our new logo with the colors and the font. Please take advantage of that on your event graphics.

Bob Wells: I also liked the design guides for the logo on the website, all very professional.

I hope they are paying you enough for this.

Bob Wells: Who did most of the new website writing, which I find succinct and easy to follow?

Henning Faas: First I took all the content of the old site. The missing pieces I have added as much as possible. Finally, all other EC members have the pages checked and completed or corrected. Special thanks goes out to our Secretary Selwyn Holland, who has really checked every word and every comma on the pages and he has been a huge help.

Bob Wells: Looking at the current IRSA Exec Committee Officer list there is a nice diversity of countries involved. It appears you are looking for a Treasurer to have all EC positions filled.

Henning Faas: I find that the cooperation within this really diverse group of people is one of the most beautiful aspects of the IRSA work. It often provides a whole new perspective. The working groups are extremely high competence, and frankly it is sometimes difficult to follow the complex discussions about class rules and interpretations. All are highly motivated and you can feel the common interest to bring the matter forward.

Unfortunately, there are still some positions that are not occupied so several positions are presently filled by just one person. Therefore, if you are interested in participating, we have plenty of work to do.

Bob Wells: When I look closer I see IRSA has more people involved than I realized.

And the nice diversity continues through the organization.

Henning Faas: There are many dedicated sailors in the world who are willing to work in these committees. But there are also many issues that need to be processed. In addition to the existing tasks we are also constantly developing new functions and classes for a lot of things that need to be developed. We have not yet reached the end of the line. The recently adopted class chairmen’s positions

50 IOM World Championship 2015 Foster City USA

will be the next asking for volunteers for our members. The existing positions are not all filled. For me it would also be very nice if we could grow to have a Publicity Communication Committee to share the increasing tasks and the not yet cultivated fields. Next steps would be, for example, the development of websites for the international classes or for future events. So again, if you are interested in participating, we have plenty of work to do.

Bob Wells: You have been in IRSA for about four months now. There had to be some significant IRSA turmoil before you got there. Lester was elected Chairman in a rare contentious election of the old guard versus Lester’s new guard, and then the elected Exec Committee was a mix of old and new regimes.

Early on a number of the unhappy old guard quit. As the new guy are things functioning orderly in IRSA now?

Henning Faas: I do not want to get into the foreground subject. It happened and it was necessary to make some changes in IRSA. Of course, it is difficult to participate or accept changes if you have worked for years in an organization. Above all, the current members of the IRSA are indeed committed beyond measure and have effected many positive changes.

Unfortunate in my view is the loss of knowledge that came with the changes and loss of most of the predecessors. I think it’s important for the future to have the Committee renewed by replacing individual members over time. Things are working orderly now and have worked orderly before with the resigned members. We still have controversial discussions in our diverse working groups and we will find compromises that brings our sport ahead.

Bob Wells: What comes next, what can we expect of IRSA going forward?

Henning Faas: I have many ideas in my head on new things. The first thing will be the development of a communication committee to have more heads to work together. On the workload we have to develop our social media channels – we need followers. New Websites for the classes is another new part that comes in the near future. In the background we have to develop our working tools; e.g. forum improvements, video conferencing, and document sharing. Communication with and to our stakeholders, the DNMs, needs massive improvement. And maybe finally to prepare the next annual meeting where we elect new officers on many old and new positions.

RC Sailing

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Rob, Michele and Kim would like to wish the competitors and officials all the best for the Rob, Michele and Kim would like to wish the 2015 IOM World Championships competitors and officials all the best for the 2015 IOM Championships Rob, Michele and World Kim would like to wish the competitors and officials all the best for the 2015 IOM World Championships

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