It must be 'as supplied by the manufacturer'. In the Nacra 17 Multihull, the 49er and the 49erFX skiffs, sailors bring their own equipment to the Games although they are not allowed to modify their equipment.
"The difficulty is to convince the sailor that his board is not so different from the others." So, we had to do some checks to prove to him that his board was not so different from the other boards that are distributed here." After investigation, the measurers could find no material difference in the board in question.
"Yesterday we had a case when one of the Laser sailors came and complained that his daggerboard was not exactly like the other boards that he has used elsewhere. Although sometimes these differences can be in the mind. They can 'feel' when a boat feels good, great, or less than average. At this level, however, elite sailors can detect differences in manufacture down to the nearest couple of millimetres. In the 'supplied equipment' events, there should be no technical advantage - everyone should have exactly the same. This is the case in the Men's and Women's One Person Dinghies, the Laser and Laser Radial. In two of the ten events taking place in Tokyo, athletes are issued with supplied equipment. "The most important thing is for the sailors to trust the measurer who is checking their equipment, because they need to know that all the other boats, their competitors, they have also been checked properly and that everybody gets the same treatment." "It's important that after all these years in a class, you get to know not only the rules of the class and the equipment, but that you know the sailors and the sailors know you. Like his counterparts who specialise in other Olympic classes, he has got to know the personalities in the fleet. Measuring boats ahead of Tokyo 2020 - photo © World Sailing His specialist subject is the 470 class, of which he used to be the International 470 Class President. And if you do that in this order, the policeman knows the tricks the bad guys are using." The phrase sometimes used for deliberate tampering with equipment is 'mechanical doping', although most of the time measurement problems arise not from deliberate cheating but because of lack of clarity in the rules or an athlete or coach inadvertently changing the equipment without realising the transgression.Įxperience counts a great deal in the measurement game, and Dimou is now working at his fifth Olympic Games. So first, you are the bad guy, then you become the policeman. "Ideally, measurers have a similar background because then they know the equipment and they have also seen things from the other side.
They know what makes a boat go fast, and they know what to look for when someone is trying to make their boat go too fast. At Tokyo 2020, the sheriff-in-chief, the Head of the Equipment Inspection team, is Dimitris Dimou from Greece.Īccording to Dimou, the best measurers have a strong background in competitive sailing. They are the sheriffs who are there to police the legality of the equipment, and to make sure no athlete is riding a coach and horses through the middle of the rule book. To have fair competition, you need to know that everyone is operating within the rules, which is why every boat, board, mast, sail and foil must be inspected and checked over by a team of Event Measurers. Just like in motor racing where winning comes from a combination of man and machine working together in harmony, the same is true in Olympic sailing. You can't win an Olympic medal in sailing without having a fast boat.
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