RG65 International Class Association

An Update on ICA Progress

Hi Everyone, I thought that it was about time that I gave you a short update on what we have been doing behind the scenes at the ICA since I assumed the Chair in 1 January.

You will recall that some of my first tasks were to get an understanding of how the RG65 class runs in the various countries and at the same time try to set up a working party to help me develop the ICA further so that it better serves the RG65 class internationally. So what has been happening about this.

A few days ago I sent out a mini survey to all the National Representatives to gather some information about the size of the class in their countries as well as how it is run and operated, and then to gather their thoughts about how the ICA should go about establishing a working constitution and revised set of rules. We have received a number of responses to that survey and what they show us is that on a national level there are big differences in the size of fleets but also big differences in how the class is run and administered, none of which is a surprise to me. What we are seeing is that everyone wants to see some improvements in the way the Rules are set out and also that the ICA needs to be formalized through a Constitution but with differing views on what format that constitution and the rules should take. I am going to leave the survey running for another week or so and then will report back to you all with more details and then start to come up with proposals on next steps.

Moving onto the Working Party, I am pleased to say that we have some early take-up and so far we have Vangelis Simonides from Greece and Ireland, Andrew Cook from Australia and Achille Chatin from France taking an active part, with a number of others offering their services too. What I want to ensure is that the working party is representative of the whole world and so we are still seeking volunteers from North and South America, so please volunteer if you think you can represent those regions.

Vangelis has also volunteered to become our Webmaster and his first task is to totally revamp the website. Between us we have decided to set up a totally new site rather than use the old site as a starting point. Work is progressing well on moving all the content from the old site to the new one and we hope to launch the new site in a few days. The new www.RG65.org will have a Forum section for everyone to share and discuss topics and ideas and so once it is launched I will encourage you to sign up to it and use it. We will try to ensure that this forum is not used for any commercial purposes, and we ask all of you that are commercially involved with the class not to use it as an advertising platform for your business.

Thanks again for allowing me to take over the Chair of the ICA, and ask always, please drop me a line if you need or want anything from me.

I will further update you on progress in a week or two.

Wayne

Thanks and Hello

I would like to start off by thanking Fredo for giving me the opportunity to take over the Chairmanship of the RG65 ICA.

Back in 2014 Fredo stepped forward to run the RG65 ICA and I am sure that you will all join me in thanking Fredo for his time and effort while in charge. During his tenure Fredo has faced many challenges and he has always approached things to the best of his ability and we wish him well for the future. I am sure that we will still see him active in the class.

It is my opinion that the RG65 Class has a great opportunity to grow into something that serves the social sailor as well as those that want to become an international champion, while retaining its independence and Corinthian ethos of fair and unregulated participation, but to do so we need seize the opportunity and structure the class properly before something else takes our space.

The small size, high performance, low(er) cost, simple Rules and friendly nature of our Class makes it very attractive to everyone, and we must not lose these properties as we evolve it.

I feel that I am able start to bring about the changes necessary to set our Class on a track that will allow it to grow and establish itself, not only in the Nations where it is currently active but in many more, not only on the level it is now but expanding further into the social sailing end of the spectrum but also to the top end where it will be attractive to the World Class sailors from other fleets, and in so doing get all those people who have a boat stuck away in their house gathering dust to get it back onto the water.

The first things that needs doing are that the International Class Association (ICA) needs to become more defined, active and transparent. So how do we do this?

We need to Define the ICA and this means setting down some rules on how the ICA will be managed and run. I intend to establish a “Working Party” of 5 or 6 people that represent all the Nations to work with me to create a set of rules by which the ICA should operate. Many of you will know that these rules may take the form of a Constitution, but how that Constitution will look will, and must, be agreed by all stakeholders
The ICA needs to become Active with our promotion and communication to all RG65 stakeholders. This will include regular website updates as well as communication with the National Associations
Transparency is for me very important. The class does not belong to me, the ICA or anyone else and so the ICA needs to become totally open about it’s vision and steps it will go through to achieve its goals. I therefore intent to make it very public exactly what we are doing.
Start looking at the Class Rules to bring them up to date and clear up some inconsistencies. How far we go with this task will be up to you, the Stakeholders.

I expect that that it will take a few months to achieve these first steps done, or at least progressed sufficiently to allow them to be voted on by all of the RG65 Stakeholders.

I hope that you all trust that I will do the best I can for the Class, and that you will all join and support me to make this happen.

Sincerely

Wayne Stobbs

ANNOUNCEMENT of Wayne Stobbs as RG65.ICA Chairman

Dear Sailor!

In August last you got a Mail from me, requesting you to present
Candidates for getting in charge of the RG65-ICA.
To that there were only TWO answers: one offering “general help” and
some sound advices, and one from Wayne Stobbs.

Wayne, friend and collaborator of RG65-ICA from long time ago, offers
himself to Manage the RG65-ICA.

As at today, December 31, I counted all the received approvals (so far
only 3 countries missing), and we find that NOBODY expressed some
objection. Or, in other words, there are

15 Welcomes, with 3 Countries without answer so far.

As I wrote: “if there are more approvals more then rejections, I will
hand over the whole control of RG65-ICA to Wayne”
And so will it be!

Today I CONFIRM THAT WAYNE STOBBS is the Chairman of RG65, starting
at 0:00 Hs UTC of January 1, 2021!

To Wayne I assure my full assistance, to the best of my abilities, and
am sure he will take us on the right path!

To Wayne I wish success,
to ALL RG65 Sailors, to Everyone,

I wish you Fair Winds, and Good Luck!
Fredo Vollmer
(Past RG65-ICA Chairman)

Future Directions for the 65 Class: A Joint Statement

After cooperating with the Work Group set up by IRSA, the following Joint Statement has been agreed. The possibly most important words included are those that recognize “the RG65 ICA, an Independent Class Organization, not affiliated to any International Association”. This Category is also recognized in IRSA´s Constitution, and allow the Class to develop all the usual events, with the only exception of those that include the terms “World”, “Continental” and Championship” in their denomination.

Future Directions for the 65 Class: A Joint Statement
November, 2017

65 Class Rules Working Party Forum

This Forum was set up in March 2017 within the IRSA site to bring IRSA, the worldwide radio sailing organization as an affiliated member of World Sailing, together with delegates from the RG65 ICA, an Independent Class Organization, not affiliated to any International Association, and a substantial Observer Group from both organizations.

The prime purpose of the forum was to focus on a set of proposed rules developed by IRSA that would be acceptable for international and continental championships under WS and IRSA guidelines.

Over the ensuing months many items were discussed and many changes agreed on resulting in a newly named set of rules for the international community: 65 Class Rules. This name variation is intended to separate those rules in custody with the RG65 ICA from those now to be published that are in the international standard IRSA format.

The IRSA delegates would like to thank the RG65 ICA delegates and the contributing members of the Observer Group for their valuable input into helping make these 65 Class Rules more acceptable and viable for international competition.

IRSA hopes that the rule discussions have established more confidence in the way we act as an international organization and we also hope that the RG65 ICA and IRSA can work more closely to further advance this class with its growing popularity.

Similarly the RG65 ICA delegates would like to thank the IRSA for the work done in developing the proposed rules and bringing this forum together as part of their ongoing support of International RC Yachting.

In the near future IRSA will publish the updated 65 Class Rules including the agreed changes. This means that international events using these 65 Class Rules can then be run with the confidence that they are under the authority of World Sailing and the IRSA.

RG65 ICA Delegates

IRSA Delegates

RG65 is able to continue operating as it has for the last 40 years.

Early in 2016 IRSA wrote a set of ‘internationally acceptable’ rules for the RG65 class and submitted them to the RG65-ICA for comments. In April 2016 these rules were shared with the RG65 community. These rules were rejected after consultation with you, the RG65 community, in June 2016.

After that IRSA insisted on setting up a Workgroup with RG65-ICA to go over their rules and discuss them. Starting in March 2017 and for the next nine months a team of three representatives for IRSA, three representatives for RG65-ICA and about 20 observers from both sides were able to ask questions about any item in the rules.

The RG65 team worked hard to get IRSA to adopt the current RG65 rules without modification. After a lot of negotiation it became apparent that this would not be possible and so the ICA team sought to protect the RG65 class in its current state. The Workshop has never the less been a very rich experience that exposed the complexities of rule writing. It also showed how passionate we are about our class.

IRSA continued to, and still do, want to establish a set of rules which would be suitable for competition at World Championship level under World Sailing/IRSA and the ICA team worked with IRSA to adjust their proposed rules so that they reflect much of what the RG65 class stands for. This was achieved in some cases but not in others.

The result of all this, culminating in the recently released Joint Statement, is that the RG65 class will continue to operate as it always has done. But in addition IRSA will soon release this set of rules that will allow competition at a World, Continental and International Championship level. As things stand, the vast majority of boats that currently comply with the RG65 rules (published in 2014) will also be able to comply with the new IRSA rules .

But again, let’s be clear, the only people that would need to ensure that they comply with these IRSA rules are the people that want to take part in the World, Continental and International Championships run by IRSA.

Through this process we have ensured that the RG65 class is able to continue operating as it has for the last 40 years.