Des Clayton 2001- International Mirror Class Asocistion of South Africa

MIRROR CLASS – THOUGHTS FOR THE FUTURE
By Des Clayton – President of the IMCA

In August 2001 at the World Championships at Howth I was elected president of the International Mirror Class Association. An event that was as much a surprise to me as it was to everyone else. I would usually expect that to be come president of an association you would have worked your way up through the corridors of power until you have reached the final pinnacle. In this case it didn’t happen that way, though when I think of it I have been involved with Mirror Dinghies for over 30 years.

I built my first Mirror in 1967 when I was 14. The number was 10353. A picture of me sailing it hangs with our other family sailing photographs. I learnt to sail in that boat and in the true tradition of most Mirrors of the time, I rowed it, motored with it and fished from it round the south coast of Ireland. I even took my then future wife out sailing in that boat and when we left home for England the boat became the trailer that carried all our worldly belongings.

I became involved again with Mirrors in 1994 when we bought a Mirror so that my son Chris and daughter Nicky could learn to sail.. Chris and I sailed together for a while competing in the European Championships in Sweden in 1996. We both helmed boats in the Europeans of 1998. In 1999 I was asked to manage the Irish team going to the Worlds in South Africa. This turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life. Chris and I both competed in 2000 Europeans and finally both represented Ireland at the Worlds in 2001 at Howth.

I have been involved with Mirror sailing both at the pottering around stage and at the high performance, competitive edge and am convinced that the Mirror is a very special boat. It’s a three sailed boat. It can be sailed without a lot of experience, though it takes a lot of experience to sail it fast. It can be sailed in conditions that other boats cannot go out in. It can be sailed by teenagers or by adults and younger children. In this day and age when things are becoming more and more specialised there are not many small boats that are so versatile.

My term in office runs until the next world championships, the Tasmania Worlds in January 2003. As I see it the job consists of two groups of objectives.

The first relates to the cyclic activities. There are European Championships to organise in the Netherlands in 2002 and World championships in Tasmania in 2003. The host clubs do the bulk of this organisation, but there are things for the international committee to do, such as giving advice and chasing up the prizes. The responsibility is on our shoulders to ensure that they are good events and I can assure you they will be!.

The second set of objectives relate to moving the class along and preparing it for the 21^st Century.

Communication needs to be improved. We have a web site address, www.mirrorsailing.com Don’t dash off to look at it, there is nothing there yet.We need to get this up and running and make a considerable effort to disseminate information that is relevant to our sailors and raise the profile of the class. That’s were you come in, what may be relevant in Northern Ireland may not be relevant in South Africa. I need to hear from you. My Email address is des@knox-clayton.co.uk

Measurement needs to be sorted out. There are certain aspects of the measurement which need to be sorted out. The wheels for this grind slowly and changes not only have to go through our rules and technical committee, be passed by a majority of our NCA’s but also have to be passed by ISAF. The total process from start to finish takes about two years. Geoff Appleton from England is the convenor of the rules and technical committee and is processing these changes. Our aim at present is to get information on the following changes out to the NCA’s by 31^st Januay 2002:

Reduction in some of the hull tolerances to bring them into line with the tolerances for the plug for the plastic boats.

Rudder Sheathing

Putting a stop into the top of the gaff to make it impossible to pull the sail up above the black band.

Integrating the interpretation into the rules.

There is then a lot of work to be done to get the interpretations that have been passed over the years incorporated into the main body of the rules.

One of the most exciting happenings at the 2001 Worlds was the success of the plastic boats. The Australians brought a number of these with them. For the first time ever a plastic boat won a race and a plastic boat was second in the competition. I feel that this is a major step forward for the class. There have been technical changes in how these boats are being built which have resulted in them being under weight for the first time. The British firm Trident has now been awarded a kit manufacturer’s license and are developing their plastic boat using similar techniques. This gives the class licensed GRP boat builders in Australia, South Africa & Europe. I believe firmly that part of the future of Mirror Dinghies lies with the development of competitive plastic boats. The class needs to work with the manufacturers to develop and market the plastic boat.

At the Worlds this year there were teams from South Africa, Australia, Netherlands, Sweden, Great Britain and Ireland. In the past there have been teams from Japan, Canada, USA and Denmark. We are working at developing our contacts with these countries to try to ensure that we get them back to future European and World championships. We are also developing a strategy to try to get representation from other countries. This is very important from the point of view of retaining our international status. On that basis I would be very keen to see Mirrors sailed in other African countries.

Getting communication going, ensuring the continuing development of the plastic boats and increasing the number of countries competing at the European and World championships; that would be enough for one year.

If you have any thoughts of things that you feel should be happening at international level in the class please e-mail me with them. I look forward to hearing from you.