IOM COG Leadership Team 2020/2023
by Malcolm Appleton 3 Nov 2020 19:29 GMT
Malcolm Appleton
I am excited and happy to announce that I have the taken over the reins of Class Captain from Gavin Watson.
Most of you will never have heard of me so here's a brief intro. My name is Malcolm Appleton and I 'discovered' radio sailing while walking around the Emsworth Slipper Pond one Thursday morning while waiting to meet my sister for lunch.
I got my first sailboat when I was six years old, a Bermudan rigged sloop...well, that's what it said on the box. It had a rubber band on the tiller connected to the mainsheet, which if set up properly was supposed to keep it on a constant heading, all things being equal.
It had nice lines and looked 'proper', which is about as far as it goes. I find that using a transmitter is preferable!
My next boat (well, that is one you cannot sit in) a DF95 came a few years later, followed by a Kantun IOM. I regularly race at Emsworth, and as often as I can at Gosport where I am also a member.
An engineer by culture and training, and a working life spent at the commercial sharp end of business, quality, history, craftsmanship, and their related skills are close to my heart.
I believe that there is a bright future for the IOM class in this country and my job is to enable the experts in their respective disciplines to make this happen. So I will be building a team around me to this end, and welcome brace hearted souls with a shared vision to get in touch with me.
Jonathan Clark
Already signed up to this voyage to the future is Jonathan Clark. Jonathan has agreed to join me as a key member of the IOM Class Association Management Team.
Many of you will probably already know him, but for those who don't, Jonathan has been a championship winner at National and European level in dinghy and yacht classes. By profession he is claims director of a major global reinsurer and another engineer. He is past chairman of the Fireball Class and past president of the Chartered Insurance Institute. An expert in corporate governance his skills and experience compliment mine. His first IOM was a Magpie which he sailed on the round pond before lending it to a friend who has yet to return it...
In the last few years he has watched the IOMs at Emsworth, bought a DF65 and, with his son's help taken up IOM sailing again. Brilliant. They own a Rubix (4428) from John Taylor and Damian Ackroyd and a Fantasia (4466) designed and built by Neil Thornton with sails by Number One sails which all takes Jonathan back to his Fireball days at Filey. Jonathan had ten years as the dinghy columnist for Yachts and yachting and brings to the IOM class a real love of sailing and excitement at getting others involved in the sport. Thank you Jonathan.
Nigel Cowern, who needs no introduction, will continue as Class Registrar as well as a key member of the management team.