Weymouth and Portland International Regatta - Equipment inspections

by International Sailing Federation on 2 Aug 2011 Weymouth and Portland International Regatta is being held from 31 July to 13 August 2011 and is the London 2012 Olympic Test Event.

Ahead of the Weymouth and Portland International Regatta all the teams and sailors have to go through measurement and equipment inspections.

Chairman of the Measurement Team, Dick Batt (GBR), is on hand to check the equipment with a strong team of international measurers and volunteers to ensure an equal playing field and to test their procedures one year ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition.

Batt said, 'I have a team of the chief measurers and the top equipment inspectors from the various classes in the Olympics and we give everything a thorough health check. From a technical point of view we make sure they're not too light and everything is properly certified and approved equipment so the racing is as equal as possible.

'In a couple of days' time we go to phase two where we go on the water to check everything is as it should be. If they have equipment to change if they've damaged it then we're there to approve changes.'

Batt held the role at the Beijing Olympic Sailing Competition and added, 'We're there in the background to make sure the technical side of things is in shape and they can rely on it to be a fair competition.'

Dick Batt talks about the processes of measuring the boats at the Weymouth and Portland International Regatta: