Olympic Games 1996

Two Soling keelboat teams will be biting their nails overnight after irregularities in their hull construction were thrown up during the comprehensive measurement checks that have been carried out on all the competing boats in Savannah this week.

Core samples have been taken from the US Soling sailed by Jeff Madrigali, Kent Massey and Jim Barton and that of the Danish crew of Stig Westergaard, Jan Anderson and Jens Bojsen Moller after Ultrasound tests appeared to reveal that the glass reinforcement laminate is not in accordance with the specification in the bow areas of the two boats.

The Soling Class rules specify the hull laminate for each part of the hull. If sections of the hull are noticeably lighter at the ends of a boat it will hobby-horse less through waves and be faster as a result. Michael Jackson, the IYRU's Olympic Chief Measurer, said "we expect to get the results of the core samples tomorrow (friday) and no decisions will be made until then."

If either boat is proved illegal, the crews will be forced to pick another from a pool of Solings here in Savannah and will have little time left to tune them up for the first race on Monday. "we welcome this inspection, because we believe we have a fair boat" Kent Massey, the American 'middle man' told the Savannah Times. "the builder (abbot) assures us everything is ok and his reputation is on the line. i have every confidence that this invasive examination of our hull will cause no ultimate damage and will validate our yacht's conformity with the rule

" One crew who have already been forced to change their boat is USA 470 sailors Morgan Reeser and Kevin Burnham. Their boat was refused measurement after another member of the USA shore team was spotted applying car paint to the bottom of their boat following what appeared to be a re-fairing of the hull. The class rules stipulate that hulls cannot be re-faired and that gel coat is the only material that can be used to re-finish any repair. As a result, the USA crew had to hurriedly borrow another boat to submit for measurement.

In the Women's Single-handed Dinghy (Europe) discipline, the daggerboards supplied with the Swedish built boats provided to each competitor, have drawn so much criticism from competitors for warping when left out in the sun, that the Olympic organisers have reluctantly agreed that competitors can use their own foils if they prefer. This has brought about its own problems. Not all competitors brought foils with them, so courier services are having a field day transporting daggerboards across from Globe to beat Friday night's measurement deadline.