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Team Telefónica has now finished the boat-measuring process - a requirement for the boats lining up at the start on the 29th of October

With the first Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012 inshore regatta just eleven days away, Spain's Team Telefónica has ticked off one of the most important requirements for the boat to be on the starting line of the world's most extreme round the world regatta: the official measurements.

It may seem obvious, but one might ask exactly what is involved in the whole process? The Volvo Open 70s are the boats that have been raced on since the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-2006. These yachts are designed and built according to the class rules, known as the “Volvo Open 70 Rule”. Whilst the Open 70 is an 'open' class, the rule lays out some strict limits and specifications to which each designer and team must adhere and respect.

The yacht itself has a maximum beam and draught, just like the mast, which must also stand within a maximum height limit, set out by the class. The bulb, keel and daggerboards, the weight of all of the appendages and the entire yacht itself, as well as the sail area, must all also fall within the margins laid out by the class rule. The sails are also subject to dimension limits, with a maximum sail area for the spinnaker of 500m², and 175 m² for the main sail. The job of the Measurers is to check that every sail fits within these guidelines. Whilst teams can play with shape and size within the maximum sail area provided, using smaller dimensions, they may not overstep the margins set out by the class rule.

From the moment a team decides to take part in the challenge it is important that they know where the boundaries lie. From that point it's up to the designer to come up with the fastest and most reliable design.

A team made up of three different nationalities known as the “Measuring Committee” is in charge of making sure that the class rule is adhered to. Each and every part of the yacht must be built according to the rule and must be thoroughly checked ahead of the start.

A process beginning far ahead of the start

With an entire week set aside for measuring, 15 days before the regatta start, contrary to appearance this is not an isolated process taking place this week, but as it did with “Telefónica”, it begins with the build of the boat when the minimum weights of the structure are measured. “The structure of the yacht must also fulfil requirements of a minimum of grams or kilos per metre squared,” explains Horacio Carabelli, Technical Director of the team skippered by Iker Martínez and a key figure in the entire build and development of the Spanish Volvo Open 70.

“Basically, during the build process everything to do with the structure is measured, whilst the final measurement stage is about checking that the boat's dimensions fall within the maximum figures within which one can build the boat,” he adds. “This is a process that has been ongoing since we put the boat on the water, checking how close we were to the figures, sometimes pushing them up a little bit until we got to this stage in the process, the final measuring, where we can make the final touches.”

When a millimetre matters

That is exactly what Team Telefónica has been immersed in over the past couple of weeks in Alicante.

“What we do now is to try to fit within a millimetre,” says Horacio Carabelli. “To get the best possible results the boat should be within the margins by a millimetre and despite the fact that the rules lay out some pretty high figures, one always looks to push things to the limit.”

So every millimetre counts. One too many in the draught of the yacht could mean not obtaining the Volvo Open 70 certificate with just days to go until the start of the competition, which could compromise presence and form on the starting line.

That is why it is so important to get to this point with the 'homework' already done, because if not “anything that goes beyond the maximum margins set out by the rule could mean pretty extensive work on the boat which could, in turn, affect the way the boat sails and compromise all of the training done ahead of the start,” the Team Telefónica Technical Director pointed out.

Team Telefónica ready to receive their certificate

Thankfully, that's not the case for the Juan Kouyoumdjian design for the Spanish team directed by Pedro Campos. “Team Telefónica has now passed all of the tests. We are ready for our certificate and we are very happy with the results we've obtained,” Carabelli rounded off by saying.