ITCA Measurer's 2003 Report

The year before an International regatta always seems to stir the interests of the competitors. As a result, 2002 was a fairly busy year in terms of responding to requests for interpretations and for copies of measurement forms. Virtually all of the correspondence has been by email, with just one regular mail request.

Some issues are beginning to come up before the 2003 Internationals in Seattle, Washington. One such was the use of Airx spinnaker cloth. This material has a silicone coating on it to help shed water, thus keeping the weight down. The defining requirements are that the cloth be made of woven nylon as per 9.1.1, so this material is allowable. For the weight consideration, please note that the Airx-500 is too light. The Airx 600 ( or greater ) weighs in at 37 g/ms or 0.9 oz/smyd , which is above the minimum of 33 g/sm or 0.75 oz/smyd as per 9.8.1.

The Black Book is now accessible on line at www.thunderbirdsailing.org . This was the result of diligent typing by Chris Reil of the Toronto fleet. Dale Dunning of the Seattle fleet has been doing updates and corrections from the Measurement Committee . We thank all of them for the effort. We will try to update this on at least a yearly basis with any rulings that have taken place. Also, we will include a separate section on the web page with the results of any recent ( ie past year ) rulings or interpretations.

One new sail number, 1262, was issued to Guy and Sally Tomme of Macungie, PA. We hope that they enjoy "Lucia" that they have built.

I appreciated all of the positive comments on the mainsheet traveller versus bridle application. I still am unsure as what is the best setup for a given area or set of wind conditions. If members want a specific topic to be addressed please write in; and, we’ll try to write up an overview with contributions from more than one fleet if at all possible.

Vidas Stukas

Measurer

email: vstukas@seastarchemicals.com