An Afternoon in a Fishing Lodge??

...yep 'fraid so, me and James and the rest of the National committee spent the afternoon in a fishing lodge at Grafam Water, not the bar at the sailing club :-(

Today the day finally came for me and James to make our entrance onto the National Committee stage representing the Midlands and the "younger" Ent yachters... it was the usual kind of affair with lots of talking and coffee and not covering everything we set out to..some things in meetings never change...

It was very encouraging to see people from both ends of the country taking the time to keep the association running, Charles Morrish from up Scotland and Jeremy Stephens from down Penzance is a great show of dedication...Thanks guys..

So, what was said... well we went through the usual stuff of reviewing the last minutes, proposals, seconders etc etc... Some of the key bits of news I picked up were as follows:

Nationals 2004
The format of the Nationals this year is getting firmed up by the "Championship Team", James has ended up on that, so that should be interesting, its looking likely that there will be 10 races in all, 2 new trophies and a new "sailing category", but this needs confirmation. Should be an excellent event despite the unfortunate proximity of the Worlds in Ireland, and Abersoch looks a fantastic venue!

National Series 2004?
Its looking likely that as Typhoon have now pulled out of the Ent scene after a few very successful (for both parties) years of great events, that we will have a new series in its place. Again this needs to be confirmed fully by the Championship Team, but its looking like we may utilize the already successful Area Championships to form the basis of a National Series, theres talk of other sponsors possibly assisting and lots of discussions about formats etc, so if you have any views either let me know or get in touch with the Championship Team.... Maybe Soulsailor should sponsor one of the events??

Worlds 2005
The worlds in 2005 are already being planned, good job really as its looking like they will be held in Sri Lanka in March 2005 - beautiful! So get saving!

Enterprise 50th Anniversary in 2006
Well, in our anniversary year the Nationals will be in Looe... but we need to make sure that this year is a special one and is celebrated in a damn fine manner... a hardworking team will be set up from the National Committee to organise this celebration, but we need your help and suggestions... so get thinking and get in touch...Now!

Publicity
As always I think, there were significant conversations about class publicity and what could be done about encouraging new members into the fleet... so to try and tackle the whole publicity/PR side of things a "PR Team" has been set-up, and you guessed it your very own Soulsailor is in on that action...should be interesting! Again if you guys have any thoughts on this get in touch, we need your ideas...

Enterprise Video?
Well finally, something I mentioned on the site a while ago may actually happen... while we were discussing publicity and the forthcoming (March) Dinghy Sailing Show, I asked if we use any Ent sailing videos at all on the stand....Apparently we don't, the association has some footage and various individuals and clubs have bits as well, so... in my stupidity, its been proposed that I investigate the creation of an uptodate Ent Movie to promote the class!!

So, it seems like the Soulsailor Video post may actually come true! Coool!

Nothing has been decided about the content or format of this video, so if you don't come up with some bloody good suggestions then it'll end up exactly as its described in my previous ramblings!

So what do I need to kick this off, well its likely that its creation will be between now and February to be ready for the Dinghy Sailing Show, so:

1. I will be looking for willing Soulsailors, stars and starlets (and their boats)
2. Suggestions and offers for locations, both on and off the water, if I dont get any then it'll probably be @ Draycote...
3. A script, a message, an idea an ethos.... what are we trying to promote, again if I dont get any suggestions then it'll be that Ent sailing is good, competition is tight and its all bloody cool on & off the water!
4. Sponsors? Yes or No? Soulsailor will definitely be supporting the project, but should we have input from elsewhere like the sailmakers etc already linked with the fleet?
5. Any other ideas?

So thats some of the stuff that went on this afternoon, the next meeting is in February where hopefully things will progress further and i'll have a boat full of other news and happenings, but until then if you have thoughts or ideas about anything i've said or any other Ent related topic then let me or your local friendly National Committee Rep know...

Right, the Grafam coffees worn off so thats it for today....