Report from ISAF Match Racing Umpiring Seminar, Gothenburg, Sweden, October 7-11, 2009
Gothenburg Royal Yacht Club (GKSS) hosted an IU seminar in conjunction with the IU Seminar Race Grade 5 and the Autumn Cup 2009 Grade 3 match racing event in Langedrag, Sweden. The seminar included two days of classroom sessions, October 7-8, and three days of on the water umpiring at the two events, October 9-11. ISAF thanks the organization for organizing the seminar.
The match racing event was sailed in boats provided by GKSS, the well-known DS 37 Match Racers, used for the World Match Racing Tour events in Scandinavia in addition to many other match racing events at all levels. The race committee included Annika Ekman as PRO and several others. ISAF thanks them for making the event possible and for running it very competently.
There were 10 delegates from Spain, Italy, Germany, Norway and Sweden. Their efforts and contribution made the seminar a great success. They worked hard in the classroom part and did a great job as umpires in the match racing event. There is good reason to believe that ISAF will soon have several new IUs as a result of the seminar.
Björn Sandell was the coordinator of the seminar and he also participated in the seminar. He and several of the other Swedish delegates took part in the planning and preparations for the seminar and ensured that the logistics were taken care of and all delegates could focus fully on the seminar. A big thanks you to all of them for making the seminar possible and a great success! The instructors were Philippe Gomez (FRA) and Marianne Middelthon (NOR), with competent support from Tina Örtendahl (SWE) as the local instructor and Eva Andersson (SWE) as chief umpire for both events.
Philippe Gomez and Marianne Middelthon
