lunedì 27 aprile 2020

Dinghy 12’,rapporti iinternazionali “Gatte da pelare”


Annullato il Bombolino per “coronavirus” ovviamente non c’è stato l’incontro ma uno scambio di lettere, tra AICD e la neo associazione "The International 12 Foot Dinghy Class Association", con sede in Olanda, ma entità diversa e non collegata al Twaalfvoetsjollenclub olandese, ovvero l’associazione nazionale nostra omologa." 
Inizio messaggio inoltrato:
Da: Francesca Lodigiani
 Oggetto:  Letter to The International 12 Foot Dinghy Class Association, AICD, D12’Classe France, Twaalfvoetsjollenclub
 Data:  23 aprile 2020 13:45:43 CEST
 A:  adm
 Cc:  voorzitter@twaalfvoetsjollenclub.nl, Moneger , info@12footdinghy.org

 
Dear Admiral Hammings,
I hope you are fine in these difficult Coronavirus times.
Thank you for your kind letter and for the introduction to your organization.

Be reassured that the Italian 12’ Dinghy Association does not feel the International 12 Association as a rival and respects its initiatives.

It is true however that many of us are disappointed for what is felt as a disrespectful  smear  campaign against our boats, based on incorrect data. 

I am neither a boat-designer, nor a fluid dynamic  expert, but dinghy sailors that have that background have examined the Towing Test, that is  published on your web site and do not  consider neither valid, nor useful  its results, chiefly  because it is  based on incorrect assumptions in respect of  our Italian 12’Dinghies.

One above all: the weight.

Please note that the first and second Italian 12’ Dinghy, I 1 Pierino and I 2 Lodoletta, have been built by shipyard Depangher in Capodistria, at that time still Italy.  It was the year 1929. Marquise Emilio Reggio had seen the 12’Dinghies compete, as single class,  in the 1928  Amsterdam Olympic Games. He had liked the boat and had bought the designs from IYRU in the UK in order to have it built.

Both Pierino and Lodoletta do still exist.  Pierino is now permanently exposed at the Genoa  Galata Museum and we have its original measurement certificate, since said boat has been with family Reggio until now.

Lodoletta is still racing and has been recently re-measured. It has also passed the “lamboley” test, that is mandatory since 2008 on all 12’ Dinghies,  and the results have been amazingly similar to the ones of modern 12’ Dinghies.

The rule about the  minimum weight of our boats  has remained the same since then: 115 kg , inclusive of rudder with tiller and any floorboards; centreboard excluded.   A number that you find in all official Italian Measurement and Construction Rules that have been published  since  1930  until  today  by  the  Italian Sailing Federation (at that time Unione Società Veliche Italiane on IYRU letterhead).

When in the 80ties my predecessor Bariffi, to save the 12’ Dinghy from decline in Italy, studied with a team of experts the rules for the construction of GPR  and GPR/ Wood 12’ Dinghy, huge attention was posed to create rules  having wooden 12’Dinghies as benchmark,  with the goal of rendering equivalent  the performance of GPR 12’ Dinghies to  that of wooden 12’Dinghies. This  because in my country, since then, and also after the come back of the wooden 12’Dingies in the 2000s, we love to race all together in a single fleet,  in real time, reserving special prices for the first master, the first super-master, the first lady and the first Classic 12’ Dinghy. In some races we have prices also for the first veteran and the first vintage Classic 12’ Dinghy.  We can also proudly say that last September, at the Imperia Italian Championship, with Classic 12’ Dinghies being 16 % of the whole fleet of 76, a Classic 12’Dinghy has been 3rd over all, after fighting  until the last race for the first position over all. 

As Italian Class we believe in transparency. This is why you can find all exiting  measurement certificates of our boats on line, on our web site.

During the 2nd World War, the offices of the Italian Sailing Federation in Genoa were bombed and many measurement certificates, including the ones  regarding  12’ Dinghies of the 30ties, were lost. Luckily some families had kept their copy at home and on our web site you can find also many certificates  from the 1930s and 1940ties . The reported weights are within said parameter.  Pierino, 1929, is 119 kg; Lodoletta, 1929 is 118 kg;  Gimbi, 1943, is 122 kg; Rondine and Nano, 1934, are  both kg 124;  IVAN, 1947, is  kg 117.

A last remark. It is true that a couple of old 12’ Dinghies out of our 2400 have been used as bars or planters, but as  Italian 12’Dinghy  passionate know, this is  an absolute  exception that we take pictures of,  not the rule. Something that, as I am sure  you are aware,  does unluckily happen in all countries. 

Summing up.

We fully respect the initiative of your organization.

We strongly disagree however with the misleading communication your organisation is disseminating  in relation to  the 12 ‘Dinghies built in accordance with the Construction and Measurement rules of AICD-Associazione Italiana Classe Dinghy 12’, operating under the umbrella of the Italian Sailing Federation (once USVI today FIV, member of World Sailing),  that has  jurisdiction  and  has  approved and enforced said Construction and Measurement rules. 

Construction rules that do not differ much from the  rules of the national Dutch 12’ Dinghy Association, in particular as regards the weight of the hull and its connected parts.

The truth in any case  is that boat speed depends not only from the weight of the hull, but also from a number of other items among which  the type of  trimming manoeuvres to optimize the  performance of the sail, the shape and surface of the sail, the antennas, the wave and wind conditions, the number of the crew members.

In the light of the above I sincerely hope that you will remove the misleading material regarding  our 12’ Dinghies  from your website and that the association you chair will reserve the respect to AICD, that AICD  in turn reserves to your and to all 12’ Dinghy communities.

Kind regards, and let’s hope that there will be the opportunity to friendly meet somewhere in the next future, when we will be at last allowed to play with our beloved 12’ Dinghies again.

Francesca Lodigiani

 
Chairman AICD  
Il giorno 16/apr/2020, alle ore 11:40, adm < adm@asb4.com> ha scritto:

  Dear secretary,
 Please find attached a letter by the International 12 Association to the AICD
 On behalf of the International 12 Association
 Bert Hamminga