Measurement in Talamone from the Perspective of the Chief Measurer

By Antonio Espada, SCIRA Chief Measurer

I’d like to write down my thoughts regarding the measuring process in Talamone, following Pietro Fantoni’s request.

The first thing I’d like to stand out is that the event that took place was a World Championship and not a weekend race. With that in mind everybody needed to be on the same page and agree that the measurement of such a Championship has certain conditions (3 pages in the Measurer’s Manual) and also consider C.4.8 ERS from ISAF, which requires identification of every measured element.

Until a new procedure is established, there’s no other way of doing it than the 3 day event that kept 7 measurers and a few staff members very busy, with all of them working hard.

The difference with previous measurements is that we have recorded every weight, daggerboard thickness, rudder weight, and taken notes of all irregularities.

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All the data we collected during Talamone’s World Championship will allow us to propose a few changes in the rules. While measuring and logging all this data, we also realized that some countries are not measuring the way it’s supposed to be done.

There are also a few irregularities in the sails. We’re going to write a letter to every sailmaker to help them avoid the same mistakes in the future.

I understand that some racers don’t like to go through measurement. There are also other racers, most of them at the top, who personally appreciated the work done by the measurerment team and who recognize that until a new procedure is in place, the lengthy procedure is what everybody should expect.

Some racers think that the goal of the measurerment team is to find out who is cheating. The real goal of a measurer is to make sure that everybody is following the rules and that everybody’s equipment fails within the limits established by the rules.

Something to consider is the large number of masts, booms and daggerboards that arrive at measurement without a painted band. The future measurement procedure will allow us to reject any of those if they don’t have that band. If that had been in place during the championship, it would have allowed us to reduce by more than 10 minutes the amount of time used in the measuring process per boat.

Having a racer, who is also a measurer, yelling that he is the only one who knows how to measure a rudder is not helpful. The next time we encounter such a situation, we won’t hesitate on writing a report to the Jury with a petition to apply rule 69.

There is also something I’d like to make clear to everybody. As long as I continue being Chief Measurer, I won’t accept anybody criticizing one of our templates nor any criticism of a measurer that’s working for the success of the Championship.

I appreciate the attitude and comprehension that most of the racers had with our work. We have just started seeing most of the results from our work, and I look forward to more results that will come in the near future.