Minutes of 2026 AGM Date: Saturday 27 June 2026 at 10.00 hours Venue: Stone SC
Present for the Committee : Paul Tanner : Chair George Love : Vice Chair/Membership Secretary Jenny Ball : Events Secretary David Ball : Training Rep. Liam Thom : Webmaster Yvonne Pike : Magazine Editor Angus Cook : Committee Member
Present representing Windsport: Tom Phipps
Also present: Approx. 38 active members
Apologies for absence were received from ctte members: Nigel James : Treasurer Jes Firth : Ctte. Member Fraser Manning : Technical Rep. Bob Carter : Historian/Archivist
Apologies for absence from members were received from: Ray Gall
MATTERS DISCUSSED
The meeting commenced with a ‘Welcome’ to all attendees from Chairman Paul and thanks for attending the AGM in the 48th year of the Class.
1.00 Minutes of 2025 AGM held on Friday 11 July 2025 at the Royal Yorkshire Yacht Club Dinghy Section. 1.01 The minutes of the 2025 AGM had been previously published on the website for all members to review. 1.02 All in attendance accepted the 2025 minutes as a true record of matters discussed. The motion to approve and accept them was proposed by Charles Watson and seconded by Jan Elfring and carried nemcon by a show of hands.
2.00 Matters Arising from 2025 AGM 2.01 It was noted that under item 7.02 an action had been placed on Chairman Paul to engage with Windsport on a discussion around the sale of new boats with a potential discount for a bulk order of approximately 5-6 boats. This had been done and a discount had been negotiated with Windsport. Disappointingly, the offer had not been taken up by members.
3.00 Chairman’s Report 3.01 Paul gave opening remarls of thanks to: -all in attendance for entering the 2026 National Championships -George (Chairman’s Gofor) for his support as Vice Chair and for taking on the role of Membership Secretary when Andrew had to relinquish the role to pursue offshore activity. -Jenny for her superb work over the last 10 years as Events Secretary which she has carried out with such aplomb, dedication and organization. Paul expressed his sadness that she had taken a difficult decision to stand down from the post. -Nigel for his management of the Association accounts and maintaining a positive cash flow. -Liam for management of the best class association website, bar none. -Yvonne for her sterling work in producing bumper editions of the class magazine -David and Jenny for holding class training sessions, this year at Tankerton and Seaford to engage with local sailors and encourage participation at class events. -Jes, Angus and Fraser for their ongoing support as valued committee members. (Noted that Jes had taken over the role from NDYC clubmate Liam Bunclark.) 3.02 Paul expressed a hope that event turnouts would be maintained and improved upon by members encouraging their fellow clubmates to take part at home events. 3.03 Paul stressed the need for the class to maintain its ‘One Design’ nature but be open to adapting to sensible changes within the existing class rules. To that end and in conjunction with Jes, he was undertaking an overview of potential updates to the ‘Sport Mode’ rules 3.04 The need for a new Events Secretary was noted for 2027. Paul indicated that the role could possibly be split into smaller sections viz.: -organising the Nationals -organising the summer TTs -Publicity communications via website, email, social media, etc. He asked anyone who might like to take on any or all of the roles to speak with him. It was noted with thanks that Lee Garton (Marconi) had already taken on the job of organising the winter TT events. 3.05 Paul also asked members to make more use of the Forum on the website to increase communication with clubs and sailors and encourage non-members at their home clubs to join the association. 3.06 In closing remarks, Paul expressed his abiding thanks to Jenny for all her work over the last ten years and marked the occasion with a gift to her on behalf of all members both present and absent.
4.00 Membership Secretary’s Report 4.01 The current membership details were summarized by George: - membership numbers were stable. This year so far 5 new members had joined and a similar number whose membership had lapsed had not rejoined. - 184 Active members (paid up to date) 4.02 Clubs. Class members are spread over 46 UK sailing clubs situated throughout the UK. The top 6 clubs by membership were: -Marconi (24) -Shanklin(19) -NDYC (19) -TBYC (11) -Draycote (10) -Grafham (10) There are a further: -3 clubs with 6-9 members -4 clubs with 4-5 members -8 clubs with 2-3 members -25 clubs with 1 member 4.03 it was noted that most members were now paying their annual subs by Standing Order (SO) which reduces the workload on the secretary and treasurer. However, 31 were still paying annually by BACS and George was workkng on some initiatives to convert them to SO.
5.00 Events Secretary’s Report 5.01 The Winter Series 2025/6 had been well supported and thirteen sailors had completed the required 3 events to qualify for the series. For the first time,the co-ordination had been taken on by Lee Garton who had done a terrific job and has offered to do so again for this year. All five dates and venues are booked and on the website. We are still the only cat fleet to have our own Winter Series – long may it continue. 5.02 The Summer Series 2026 is still in progress with two successful events completed at Carsington (April) and Thorpe Bay(May). Unfortunately, the June event at Newhaven & Seaford could not go ahead due to adverse sea state. Several of the fleet travelled there anyway and took the opportunity to run a shore based training session with local sailors which was very well received. 5.03 In a similar vein, Jenny & David had run a training session atTankerton at the end of May. Both Tankerton and NSSC have large home fleets and it would be very beneficial if we could encourage a few from each club to come out and support the circuit. 5.04 Remaining Summer TTs are a one day event at Draycote on 18th July and the Grafham TT/Inland Champs in October. The Sport Nationals will be held at North Devon from 3rd to 5th October. 5.04 Entries for this year’s Nationals were at 42, same as last year. It had required a lot of effort and promotion to generate attendance. This seems to get more challenging each year and is also experienced by other classes. Hence the efforts above to encourage members at other clubs to come along and give it a try. 5.05 There was a subsequent discussion regarding the Events Secretary Role as Jenny is standing down this year. The proposal is to split the role up into smaller roles. The National Champs could be managed by a small committee to spread the load. The Summer Series could be a standalone role in a similar vein to the Winter Series co-ordinator role that Lee has recently undertaken. The Comms. side would also work well as another standalone role. Jenny confirmed that a full set of templates etc. were available for people to pick up and work with and/or try new approaches going forward. 5.06 Jenny made a note of thanks to Noble Marine Insurance for their ongoing sponsorship of the class’s National Championships.
6.00 Treasurer’s Report 6.01 In Nigel’s absence due to injury, Jenny presented a summary of accounts given to her by Nigel. This confirmed that the Association was in good financial health to the tune of £17,145.00 cash reserves (undoubtedly the envy of many class associations). This represented a slight increase on 2025. 6.02 Steps were still being taken to close two redundant bank accounts (TSB & Santander) and assimilate all funds into the present live NatWest account. This was proving to be a difficult task due to banking protocols but it was hoped that resolution would be achieved this year. 6.03 The overall position represented a stable financial year in difficult times and confidence in the future financial viability of the association. 6.04 It was not necessary to consider any increase in membership subscriptions from the current £20 per annum.
7.00 Election of Officers and Committee 7.01 All existing committee members and noted as follows confirmed their agreement to stand for re-election. -Chair : Paul Tanner -Vice Chair: George Love - Membership Secretary: George Love -Treasurer : Nigel James -Technical Rep. : Fraser Manning -Webmaster : Liam Thom -Magazine Editor : Yvonne Pike -Events Secretary : Jenny Ball (Noting that Jenny’s post will become vacant at the end of this year’s summer events.) -Training Rep. : David Ball -Historian & Archivist : Bob Carter -Ctte. Member 1 : Angus Cook -Ctte. Member 2 : Jes Firth 7.02 The motion to approve re-election of the above was proposed by John Pearse and seconded by Dave Clark and was carried nemcon by a show of hands.
8.00 Proposals to the Association 8.01 None had been tabled by the due date.
9.00 Venues for future National Championships 9.01 Jenny confirmed that future National Championship venues had been secured as follows: -2027 Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy – Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th July. -2028 Windsport/Restronguet SC – Friday 7th to Sunday 9th July. ( 2028 is the 50th anniversary of the Dart 15 Class!) 9.02 She anticipated that the venues for the Sport Nationals would continue on alternate years between North Devon Yacht Club and Shanklin SC.
10.00 Windsport Update 10.01 Tom Phipps confirmed that Windsport were putting renewed effort into building the brand by way of recent new initiatives, notably: -‘Dartfest’ – a biannual social regatta which had been weel supported in the last two years. -‘Dart Academy’ – a three day training academy format, again, on biannual years Both had been well supported and enjoyed by all participants in the last few years and were an opportunity for Dart sailors to try something different and fun. 10.02 Tom confirmed that the business was in good shape to support the class. Supply chains for new boats, parts and equipment were in good shape and that Windsport were as passionate as ever about the brand. 10.03 Tom confirmed that supply chains for new parts were in good shape including RWO as a new supplier for blocks, etc. and Allen for masts/alumnium extrusion. 10.04 Tom confirmed that initiatives were taking place for the manufacture of smaller parts via 3D printing technology. These were test bed methods at present but, when brought in, would produce efficiency of production and cost benefits. 10.04 Tom noted that members could take advantage of some newly introduced items: -a window in the mainsail which is factory produced and class legal -a gold panel in the top of a new mainsail to recognize 2028 as the 50th year of the class.
11.00 Any Other Business 11.01 The chairman proposed that at this year Sport Nationals we should have an AGM principally to discuss potential updates to the Sport version class rules. The proposal is based upon changes that are trending in the sport fleet and it is therefore important that we discuss these changes because they only reflect on Sport sailors. The proposal are -
Formal business of meeting closed 10.59 hours
Something Special Following the formal business, a presentation was made to webmaster Liam Thom. Liam, by popular vote of the committee, was presented by Chairman Paul with the Peter Mayne Plaque for his superb work over many years for the setting up and ongoing management of the class website which is, in the opinion of many, one of the best, if not THE BEST, class association websites in the UK. (For information, the Peter Mayne Plaque is awarded from time to time to a member of the association for, as the wording on the plaque says: ‘ Extraordinary Service to the Dart 15 Class”.)
Distribution: -Dart 15 Committee Members -All members via website publication - Windsport
Ref: GL/300726/final |
