This morning the Regatta Judges Symposium organized by the Royal Spanish Sailing Federation (RFEV). The main objective of this meeting is to facilitate the adaptation of technicians, judges, regatta officials and measurers to the changes introduced in the Racing Regulations Sailing (RRV) 2025-2028 by the international federation World Sailing.
The opening day took place in the presence of the president of the RFEV, Chimo González Devesawho underlined the importance of technicians in the organization of competitions. According to him, “the Judges Committee includes three groups: the judge or referee of the regatta himself, the official and the measurer. The three are key people in the organization of regattas, and without them it would be impossible to organize events. The World Sailing conference has just been held, there are new regulations, which are modified every four years, and the objective of the conference is to analyze these changes.
González Devesa also highlighted the formative role of the Judges Committee, saying that one of the objectives of the Committee is the continuing education via an online platform, where practical cases are also reviewed that help technicians interpret the rules. “These conferences are very important because they encourage the exchange of experiences. New World Sailing regulations introduced some changes related to flying shipsa way of navigating to which we must adapt,” he added.
After opening, Andrés Pérez Álvarezpresident of the Technical Committee of Judges (CTJ), welcomed the participants and the day continued with the scheduled presentations. Among them, Isaac Villa gave a presentation on meteorology and weather forecasting tools, and Miquel Salom Martorell reflected on the role of judges and civil servants as agents of socialization through the promotion of fair play.
In the afternoon, Giorgio Davanzointernational judge, will present the rule changes for the next cycle, followed by a moderated round table with Andrés Pérez to discuss practical cases linked to regulatory developments.
Lucky Serrano, director of competitions at the RFEV, explained the training approaches for the different technical roles: “Depending on the discipline of the judge, the training affects one part or another. In the case of judges, the emphasis is on rule 2, on the right of passage and procedural issues related to demonstrations. As for the officials, he focuses on rule 3, which establishes the criteria for organizing the regatta… Everyone must know everything, but everyone focuses on their specific issues. During the conference, we will review the changes that will come into force in 2025 with the new regulations.”
The program will continue tomorrow Sunday with specific presentations for officials, judges and measurersin addition to an assessment of the work carried out in 2024 and the projects for 2025. The symposium will end with the participants’ farewells after two days of intense work.
