Measurement

Because the 5o5 is a one design class association, the class rules stipulate that boats have to be built in a certain way. In order to ensure that the competition at the world championships is fair, a significant amount of time is devoted to measurement. This is a huge operation for 175 boats and 350 sailors. Your mast has to be measured to ensure that all of the hoisting points for your halyards are compliant with the rules. Spinnaker poles are measured to make sure they are not too long. Booms are measured, as well as rudders and centreboards, which must comply with the rules as well. All of this gear gets stickered with official stickers to indicate that it is allowed. All of your sails must be measured and stamped. And the whole kit and caboodle has to be weighed after all this to ensure that all competitors’ equipment is at least the minimum required weight. There are a small army of official measurers and helpers who do all this measuring, but the whole process is labor intensive. It involves disassembly and reassembly of all the boats, and moving them around, to, and through the measurement stations. It is not what most people would call a good time.

Since the Team Ötzi 5o5 had never been measured before, we were not 100% sure that everything would be okay. We did have some problems getting our sails measured because they are new and did not have official class stamps on them. Apparently this is a problem for all American boats because we gringos don’t have a good system for getting sails measured and stamped. But everything worked out fine and at the end of Thursday we were all measured in and ready to compete. This was exciting news because it meant we could have all day Friday to rest and work on the boat. We needed this time, because during the PreWorlds we had come up with a new round of lists of things to accomplish and change on the boat. Plus we were pretty tired!





















Now that we´re done with measurement, it´s time for dinner!