Thanks Bill. You've done a great job of making the point of the purpose of the J/30 Class Association. And further, I think even the application for joining the association states something about promoting J/30 One Design events.

And there in lies my issue with the main sail and with the proposed change in the voting. It is my belief that the majority of the owners of J/30's don't have the opportunity to race OD. It's not ease for the majority of J/30 owners to do an OD race. We can't just go out on a Wednesday night and have 3-10 j/30's show up. We have to travel long distances to participate in OD races.
On Lake Erie, in several years of trying - we have not yet been able to put 4 J/30's on the same starting line.
For the past several years, I have been invited to do the Verve Cup in Chicago - with the promise that there will be a fleet of J/30's, enough to have our own start. If memory serves, in the last two years there was only 1 local J/30 in the race + one boat from New Orleans. Dell Todd reported to me that the j/30's on Lake Michigan are scattered from west Michigan to north of Chicago. This year the Western Great Lakes District wants to try to do a Levels racing event and will invite the S2 9.1's in order to have enough boats
Reading other District news, one of the New England districts wants to do OD events but can't do level racing because too many of the boats are PHRF modified and thus the race will have to be handicapped

There are only a few pockets remaining where true one design racing takes place on a regular basis. And to those areas and boaters that pull it off - I say congrats. I wish we could accomplish that here in Lake Erie.

My point though is this. Most J/30's that race race mostly PHRF. Even most racing J/30's that want to do or get to do OD still race mostly PHRF.
Bob Rutsch is quite obviously a great spokesman for OD racing and as he states - that's all he does. I'm guessing though that he represents a small minority.

I propose two things
1. Change the rule on the main to allow string sails so that the OD configuration is compatible with the majority of J/30 racers that race PHRF and may want to do OD racing.
2. Don't change the voting rule to skew it towards the few that only race OD. Keep the rule so that it is inclusive of the PHRF racers.

In conclusion; a lot has changed in the 30+ years since the boat was designed and the OD rules were implemented. To the BOG - Look at the OD fleets; look at the districts; look around at what's changing and what has already changed. Then ask yourselves this; there are over 400 J/30's identified in our fleet - what can the association do to be inclusive of that fleet? Would it really be benificial to be more exclusive in the voting?
One of the biggest problems with doing OD events is getting boats to the events and the cost of travel. So, make loaner boats available, help find inexpensive lodging and do everything possible to contact the active PHRF sailors to come join the fun.

Since the association is all about 1 Design then I ask this. How many times have the individual BOG members reached out to individuals in their district fleets to find out what it would take to get the boat owners to participate in an OD event

from the Peanut Gallary