Annual MITNA Meeting

Mon 09-Dec-2019

17:00-19:00

Results

MITNA Meeting Minutes

December 9th, 2019

 

Bluewater report on Mashnee

Speaker: Matt Wall

• Past Year Recap:

  • Very good, active year

  • Mashnee spend time on the Charles River, and then traveled to Maine, the Boston Harbor, etc. 

  • 1 spinnaker was lost, and it was replaced with a bigger spinnaker

  • Mashnee is still in very good condition

• This Coming Year:

  • There will be racing and deliveries all along the coast (Maine, Nantucket, etc.) this coming summer 

• Goal: Get more undergraduate and graduate students to sail Mashnee and find people interested in racing or doing deliveries

 

Report on Racing (number of participants, how it went, etc.)

Speakers: John Pratt and Zach Shapiro

• Techs racing

  • There are 3 series throughout the year:

    • Monday night Tech racing in the Spring

    • Monday Night Tech racing in the Fall

    • Tuesday Tech Racing over the Summer 

  • This past year, 151 races were run (31 races in the spring, 82 races over the summer, and 38 races in the fall). 

• Monday Learn to Sail Classes

  • Very good turn out (often ran out of boats) 

  • Many people who began sailing in this learn to sail class continued racing in Techs in the fall

• Major Regattas:

  • Charles River Open Team Race (CRO) 

    • Very successful and high demand to be able to compete (signups were closed 7 minutes after opening) 

  • The Brass Rat

    • Congratulations to Trevor Long, who won

    • Good turn out

 

• Team Racing 

  • There was a very good turn out this past summer, averaging 30 sailors each race day (about 5-7 teams) 

  • One goal this past summer was to increase collegiate participation

    • Northeastern, Harvard, Brown, and Tufts sent out emails to their team which seems to increase numbers

 

Report on Learn to Sail Classes

Speaker: Eric Gibber

• 24 mid-week classes were help from April to the end of September and made possible with the help of over 100 volunteers

  • Over 340 people attended these classes

• One focus was on having a good retention rate for the three-day classes:

  • 97% of people who attended the first class attended the second class

  • 91% of people who attended the first two classes attended the third class

• Sunday learn to sail classes:

  • 400 new sailors attended

• Total number of new sailors - 762

• Number of people who joined who had prior sailing experience - 113

• Total number of new people - 888 (which is the same exact number as last year) 

• Total number of separate classes run this year - 99

• More people attended classes for more advanced boats: 

  • 10 firefly classes with a total of 32 people

  • 7 420 classes with a total of 22 people

  • 17 laser classes with a total of 47 people

  • 25 lynx classes with a total of 63 people

  • 16 windsurfing classes with a total of 112 students

    • Special thank you to Ali, John Alba, and all of the other volunteers who made this possible!

• Altogether, learn to sail classes were held for 174 different types of boats this past year

• Simulator

  • Very helpful to teach beginners

  • Looking forward to using it more this coming year

 

Report on Windsurfing

Speaker: Stewart Craig

• Current Resources:

  • 4 Beginner Boards

    • They are in really poor condition and are very outdated

    • Would be very beneficial to replace them before the summer

    • There are better options for new boards that have soft padding on the deck and that are less complicated for beginner use 

  • 4 Advanced Boards

    • These are in good condition

  • The current number of boards is good (there is no space for any more boards) 

  • The program would benefit from more windsurfing booms

    • The current booms break very often and are hard to find replacement parts for

  • Adapters, sleeves, and steps for the RDM mast are also needed (many are currently at the bottom of the Charles) 

  • This past we added new sails, including larger beginner sails which were very popular

  • Thank you to all of the volunteers that make this possible! 

 

Report on foiling boats 

Moth - Trevor Long

• The moth is being used a lot more than it has been in the past (about 5-6 people take it out regularly) 

• The Hull

  • There are spider cracks in the hull that have been getting much worst

  • Needs serious patching/repair/replacement

• Gantry issues (the issue was originally fixed, but the problem has come back) 

• Foils are chipped

• Sails are very worn out

• Some of the boat repair issues can be managed by the sailors, but the hull is the main concern 

UFO - Stewart Craig 

• We got the UFO last fall, and a lot of people have been sailing it

• Currently, there are no classes taught, but when people want to sail it, they are given tips and pointers for how to rig and sail it

• Many parts have broken, but the company has done a good job sending replacement parts and upgrades when necessary (reinforced mast base) 

29er - John Ped

• The type of boat is not very well suited for the Charles, but when the wind is good it is a lot of fun to sail

• There are a good amount of people who sail the 29er (including people who are not on the sailing team) 

• We got a new jib this past year

• It would benefit from a new kite this year

• Thank you to dock staff who have helped with boat/fiberglass repairs!

Question: Should any classes be taught in these boats?

Answer: Trevor Long

• Believes the UFO would be the best high-performance boat to hold classes in

• There is only 1 29er, so not sure about the structure of the class, which would have to be pretty small

• The 29er can act as a gateway to other high-performance boats (the moth) 

• The 29er would be difficult to hold classes in because of the trapeze harness

• The moth is too fragile 

 

Report by Stewart Craig

Regattas hosted:

• See above for notes on the CRO and Brass Rat

• Wood trophy

  • State under 13 championship in tech dingy

  • Would like to get more teams to attend

    • Contact Mass. Bay Sailing and have them promote the event 

Funds generated by rentals

• 100 rentals this past year (from weddings on the roof, BBQ, etc.) 

  • About $60,000 revenue from these events

Dock Staff

• 25 people on doc staff this season

 

Report by Fran

New tech fleet

• An order for 30 new boats has been places

• The order for the sails has not been placed yet

  • 3 different bids have been placed to different sailmakers, and we are waiting to hear back from them

• Alterations made to the new fleet:

  • The mast has been moved back to iit’s original position (where it was designed to be in 1935) 

  • David Larson designed a new Centerboard, and it was moved farther aft 

  • Side stays are lowered to attach to the midpoint of the mainsail luff

    • This makes the mast bend more evenly

    • The side stays attach to the hull farther forward, allowing the boom almost be perpendicular on downwinds

  • Deeper rudder and a longer tiller

  • Thwart is 3 in farther forward

  • End boom sheeting

• Question:  Will you be able to reef the sails?

• Yes - they will have 2 reef points just like the previous tech sails

Renovations & Fund Raising

• The current athletic director is leaving in a few weeks, and the new athletic director won’t be on campus until the end of January

• We are not able to begin fundraising until projects are cleared with the new athletic director

• Locker room renovation:

  • Should cost $40,000-50,000

• The new fleet of Techs

  • Cost $270,000-280,000

  • Currently, about half of the boats are endowed

• Next goal: replace the fleet of fj’s

  • Should cost around $160,000

 

Report on MITNA website 

Speakers: Matt Wall

• The current website is not aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly

  • Raymond Huffman volunteered to discuss updating and making improvements to the current website

  • It will be important to know what we want on the website so he can decide what the best course of action is

• Matt Wall

  • The current website has a clunky interface, but it has a lot of good information on it (databases, calendar, etc.) 

  • There are three major things Matt would like to change/update about the website:

    • Get gitlab on the website

    • Improve the photo gallery

    • Mattermost (slack equivalent) 

  • Problem with using google docs or slack - the information and records go away when the account that set up the document goes away 

    • Proposed solution: get an MIT email dress that is not assigned to a person and use that to hold all of the accounts and records

  • The website also needs to be phone and tablet friendly

  • Matt would like to keep the back end of the website intact, as it holds a lot of very good information 

  • If you are interested in helping, talk to Matt Wall to figure out what you would like to/are able to do ( contact him at mbwall@mit.edu)

 

Report by sailing team captains

Speaker: John Ped

• MIT’s Sailing team had a great fall season!

  • We sent ~30 teams to regattas this Fall

  • There are currently about 45 people on the roster 

  • Championships:

    • Freshman Championship - 10th place

    • Co-ed Fleet Championship - 11th place

    • Women’s Fleet Championship - 7th place

  • Spring Season:

    • Team Racing Nationals Qualifier is at Harvard

    • Co-ed Fleet Racing Qualifier is at MIT

    • Women’s Fleet Racing Qualifier is at Brown

    • Nationals are in New Orleans, Lousiana 

• We were able to send more teams to regattas thanks to the new assistant coach Mike

• We are thankful to be able to host many regattas out of MIT and have access to our fleet of fj’s that are kept in great condition by the dock staff  

 

Report by the Commodore

Speaker: Emily Haig

• We are getting 2 ergs for the pav!

 

Elections

Eligibility 

• In order to be eligible to run for commodore, Vice Commodore, Secretary, or Treasurer, you must be an MIT Student

• There are no restrictions on who can run to be a member at large, the team racing chair, or the fleet racing chair

 

1. Commodore

• Nominations: Emily Haig

• Elected: Emily Haig 

2. Vice commodore

• Nominations: Julia Wyatt, Dana Haig 

• Elected: Julia Wyatt

3. Secretary

• Nominations: Raymond Huffman, Dana Haig

• Elected: Raymond Huffman

4. Treasurer

• Nominations: Gavin West, Dana Haig 

• Elected: Dana Haig 

5. Members at Large (5 members) 

• Nominations: Trevor Long, Annie Hughes, David Larson, Anton M., Zach Shapiro, Alpha (Zach and David pulled their names) 

• Elected: Trevor Long, Annie Hughes, Anton Mazurenko, Alpha Sanneh, Gavin West

6. Fleet Race Chair

• Nominations: John Pratt

• Elected: John Pratt

7. Team Race Chair

• Nominations: Zach Shapiro

• Elected: Zach Shapiro

 

Nominations for the Hatch Brown Service Award for 2019.

**there is no limit to how many people can get the award this year**

• Joe Zambella nominated by Stewart Craig, seconded by Fran

  • Joe has been our boatswain

  • He retired right before Thanksgiving

  • He has been instrumental in taking care of all of the MIT Boats, changed rigging on fireflies and fj’s, etc.

  • He is an accomplished sailor who was president of the Star Class

  • He was the commodore of College Park Yacht Club

• John Keck nominated by Eric Gibber, nomination seconded

  • John is one of our learn to sail instructors

  • He ensured that all of the Learn to Sail Classes on Wednesday run smoothly and keeps everything running very well 

 

After voting, the Hatch Brown Service Award was awarded to Joe Zambella and John Keck. 

 

Organizers

Questions about this event should be directed to the organizer(s): MITNA Exec