Minutes of the Combined Comet Class Association (CCCA)

Annual General Meeting

Held via Zoom on Tuesday 3^rd Dec 24 at 19:30

Chairman Adrian Padro

1. Explanation of Procedure
   1. Proposal – ‘The CCCA AGM 2024 should be conducted in accordance with the procedure published on the CCCA website’ Proposed by CCCA Committee.
   2. Agreed and accepted
2. Roll Call 

Bob Horlock, Richard Salliss, Chris Maine, Chris Boutle, Glyn Rawson, Sue Frost, Gerry Mogg, Nigel Austin, Steve White, Steve Ashford, Chris Biglin, Caroline McAusland, Andrew McAusland, Martin Davis, Ade Padro, Simon Gregory

3. Apologies were received from:

Simon Dolinczny, Richard Fryer, Brian Wilkinson, Guy Farrant

4. Acceptance of the minutes of the 2023 AGM.
   1. Proposal – ‘The minutes of the CCCA AGM 2023 held by correspondence are accepted as a true record of that meeting.’ Proposed by CCCA Committee.

Agreed and accepted

5. Reports:
   1. Builder’s
      1. Versa, Zero and Duo (Andy Simmons)

No report was received from Andy Simmons

5. Trio (Glyn Rawson)

See Appendix

5. Association officers:
   1. Treasurer: (Caroline McAusland)

1. Adoption of Accounts
2. Proposal – ‘The statement of accounts presented by the Treasurer at Item 5bi should be accepted as a true record of the CCCA accounts.’  Proposed by the CCCA Committee.

See Appendix for the Treasurer’s report

The Accounts were accepted as being a true record

2. Secretary: (Richard Salliss)

Richard asked for all members to encourage any Trio, Versa, Duo or Zero owners who are not members to join.      It’s free!

2. Chairman: (Adrian Padro)

See Appendix for the report

6. Election of officers and committee:

The following appointments are made

Chairman (Bob Horlock)

Secretary (Vacant)

Cruising Secretary (Steve White)

Treasurer (Anne Way)

Trio Captain (Richard Salliss)

Versa Captain (Martin Davies)

Duo Captain (Nigel Austin)

Zero Captain (Vacant)

Webmaster (Steve White)

7. Vote of Thanks to retiring committee members

Thanks were given to those committee members standing down Ade Padro, Tracy Padro, Caroline McAusland, Richard Salliss and Stephen Linton

8. Adoption of new constitution
   1. The Chairman explained the background to the new constitution which had been available on the CCCA website prior to the meeting.
   2. Proposal – ‘The new constitution presented by the Chairman at Item 8a should be adopted by the CCCA.’  Proposed by the CCCA Committee.

The new constitution was adopted

9. Venues for Inlands, National Championships, and Open meetings for 2025.
   1. CCCA Inlands 2025.  Llangorse SC have offered to host the Trio Inland Championships in 2025.  This was positively received by the members and the Chairman would seek to sort out the details with Llangorse.
   2. Nationals
      1. Trios

The Nationals will be on the 8 – 10 Aug 2025 hosted by Brixham SC

The 2026 Nationals will be held at Exe SC 

9. Duos     

It was expected that the Duos would arrange a Nationals at Cransley S.C, as in previous years, and advise the CCCA so that it can be advertised to the membership

9. Versas, Zeros ?
10. If a club can be found with a number of Versas and Zeros then perhaps an event could be created
11. Open Meetings – Offers invited from clubs willing to stage an open meeting in 2025.

Cotswold Sailing Club have indicated that they could host an inland event.    Perhaps over a weekend with camping     Plenty of waterside, flat grass pitches, fresh water and a CD washout facility but campers must be self-sufficient i.e. have their own cooking and overnight toilet facility.     There are of course showers and toilets in the clubhouse but camping is on the other side of the lake.

10. The Chairman presented the priority goals for the committee in the next 12 months

1. Decision to continue as an RYA Affiliated Class Association 
2. Possible dinghy show attendance in 2026.      The 2025 event is too close to arrange.    Possibly in 2026 but the cost at approx. £1000 was deemed to probably be beyond any benefit to the CCCA.
3. Membership Communication strategy is to continue as at present with email and Facebook
4. Modernise Internal Management processes of the CCCA
5. Membership fees may be needed to reinforce the finances of the CCCA and to positively identify membership.
6. AOB

Peak Dinghys are pursuing the prospect of holding a ‘stock’ Trio.  They are holding, masts, sails and foils.

Appendix – Reports

CCCA Chairmans report 2024

Firstly, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of the CCCA committee and CCCA members for their full support this year.

With Tracie and I increasing spending our time sailing on the Solent (Isle of Wight), we feel it is right that we resign from our positions enabling a new chair to focus on the CCCA.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our positions on the CCCA and look forward to supporting the CCCA in the future in any way we can. We will continue to sail our Trio and look forward to some winter sailing in the Sailjuice series and this years Nationals.

Once again, thank you all for the support over the years. Best wishes,
Adrian and Tracie.

CCCA Treasurer’s Report

Year ended 2023 prepared by Caroline McAusland and audited by Mike Hart.

The annual accounts have been posted on the CCCA website and are hopefully self- explanatory.

Our total income for the year was £654 with Noble Marine being our sponsor (£350) and £275 income generated from the Nationals and £29 website refund.

Expenditure amounted to £765 and is detailed and explained in the accounts. This leaves a deficit of £111. We have a balance of £3848 in the account on 1st January 2024.

We have introduced a £10 top up fee for each entry at the Nationals to maintain our balance.

Thanks all.
Caroline

Comet Trio Report 2024

There were no Trio Open events this year and the Inland Championships were cancelled leaving the Nationals as the only Trio fleet racing taking place apart from the Exe SC Wednesday Evening Series.

The Nationals were held at Exe SC from 12th to 14th July. With entry restricted to Mk1 Trios, 20 boats took part, 7 visitors and 13 from the Exe SC fleet. All 7 races

were sailed in light and variable winds with Andrew and Caroline McAusland winning from Guy Farrant and Graham Sykes with Anne and Mike Way in 3rd.

The Trio fleet at Exe SC now numbers 31 boats with an average of 8 boats racing in the Wednesday evening series.

3 Trios flew the flag at one or two of the Sailjuice Winter Series and Andrew and Caroline were 4th at the Starcross Steamer and won the Squires Trophy.

The Trio is an excellent cruising boat and cruising the Trio continues to be well supported at Cody SC and at Exe SC.

Bob Horlock Comet Trio 503

Comet Duo 2024

There has been little to report during 2024, apart from the annual gathering of Comet Duos at Cransley SC in August for the “Worlds” and National Championships. We have managed over the past 6 years to have between 9 and 15 Duos out, and would love to get more but it is difficult to know where the other 160 or so are hiding around the UK!!

Having taken over from Stephen Linton this year, it is my main task to identify where these 160 boats are, contact their owners and see if we can get gel as a group of like minded folk to keep the class going by sharing knowledge and experiences and perhaps even getting one or two other events organised other than at Cransley.

I am in regular contact with Andy Simmons with regards to Duo things (as well as things to do with the single Comets). Please contact me if you do see a Comet Duo out and about – a bit like the Twitchers – do record the sail number and location/club!!

Regards

Nigel Austin Comet Duo 103

Trio Builders Report

Spring next year will see the tenth anniversary of the start of my involvement with the Comet Trio, how time flies.

To date we have made sixteen new Trios, sold many more new rigs and quite a few sails. As some of you may know my Club is Ogston and we have eight Trios that are owned by the Club and were bought back in 2002 as training boats. They are still going strong, being used to run Learn to Sail courses and then for the newly qualified sailors to gain experience in.

Until recently, at the end of the Learn to Sail course, the various Fleet Captains at the Club would meet those graduating to try and get them to join their fleet. This approach had some success, but not a great one.

So, at the start of this season and with the news that we would be hosting Trio Inlands in the Autumn, the Club took a different approach. Novice sailors were actively encouraged to sail a Trio. Two of the Club boats were fitted with Race Rigging and Spinnaker Chutes. On Friday evenings, instructors took out novices and showed them how to use the Spinnaker and from Summer onwards, they joined in the racing.

It was disappointing that the Inlands had to be cancelled, but we still had four Trios out over that weekend and even with a mixture of set ups (no Spinnaker, Mk I Main + Mk II Spinnaker and all Mk II) the racing was close throughout the weekend.

One thing that I have learnt from all this, is that people at the Club are confused about the difference between a Mk I and a Mk II Rig. The Club fitted out two of the Trios with the new spars and North sails, when they were introduced. Subsequently they have bought new Mk I mains. They have plenty of the original sails to, but the old Spinnakers do not have patches. They thought that it was the choice of mainsail alone that mattered.

I know that early in the year, at a Sailjuice event, the race officer had a problem identifying whether a Trio was a Mk I or Mk II. I recently was told about another race in that series where a Comet Race had the same 5xx sail number at a Trio.

After the first incident, someone asked if I would consider putting a number 2 in the centre of the Comet insignia on a Mk II Main? After giving this a lot of thought, I decided that the flat top v pin head was sufficient. However, I do accept that it’s very difficult to spot a Spinnaker from a Code Zero. So, I rang Phil Morrison and the RYA and all three of us agreed that we could see no reason why either spinnaker could not be used with a Mk I or MK II Main. I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Finally, I would like to thank the following:

Those Committee members who are standing down, for all their hard work and those staying on, or joining, for the work to come.

All of you who have bought everything from a new boat, a new rig, some new sails or a bit of rope. I know that there are bumps in the road sometimes and I do appreciate your patience and understanding.

Everyone who sails a Trio. Thank you all
Glyn
Peak Dinghy