ADA News
It's been a busy year so far at the ADA. Members held an AGM in February where they approved a new Constitution (now available on the website on the Members page), a new National Secretary (Anne Garrett) and a fee increase to promote the class. Because of our geographical distances, the AGM was held by email with online voting on the motions. All motions were passed unanimously.
Dragon Class Promotion
Sucessful Class Promotion consists of a lot of parts. One part is raising our profile nationally, and as a first step, the ADA has joined US Sailing, the US national authority for the ISAF. This gives ADA members a discount for joining US Sailing and a clickable link to the NA Dragons website on their One Design page. Sailors looking for a One Design Class can click through to our website and check us out. And we're looking at taking out an ad in Harken One Design for 2013. Another part is raising our profile with the IDA, whose mandate is to promote Dragon sailing worldwide. We've had initial discussions with the IDA Chairman about how they can help develop the North American Dragon Class. And we've talked to the Australians about how they have sucessfully grown the Dragon fleets down under. Lots of good ideas. And a final part is helping local fleets get visibility. Someone in the Vancouver Fleet had some Dragon logo baseball caps made, so we copied that good idea (thanks Ayrborn!) and have ordered over 70 custom baseball caps for many of our members. They were just mailed out to Members today. We were also designing a car sticker for local fleets to use.
Fleet Development
We've had some interest in developing a local fleet in Seattle. As a first step we'll invite all the Seattle area Dragon sailors to get together to discuss the concept. Early ideas are to get a couple of Dragons out racing in some of the local handicap or One Design races so they can be seen and we can get people out on them. There are a number of One Design Classes in Seattle in various states of health and some of those sailors may be looking for something new. Wouldn't it be great to get some Seattle-Vancouver racing going again in the next few years?
NA Dragon Events
If you are travelling during sailing season and want to race a Dragon, call the local Dragon Fleet and they will find you a spot as crew in a local race. The latest listings for West Coast and Great Lakes Events are posted here. Meanwhile we are having discussions about how and where to hold our National Championships and the North Americans. We should aim for one in the Great Lakes area and one on the West Coast. The team racing format is popular for events such as the Pacific Rim Interport and might be an interesting way to restart these events. The basic concept would be an invitational event where there is a large enough local fleet to be able to provide enough Dragons for visitors and locals. There would be some rotation amongst boats to make things fair. It's probabaly more important to get this started, than to get it perfect the first time.
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