A seminar for prospective international judges was held at the Istanbul Sailing Club in Asia from November 23-26, 2007. Twenty-one candidates from eleven nations participated including Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Greece, Israel, Italy, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Serbia and Turkey. Barbara Farquhar (USA) and Neven Baran (CRO) were the instructors. They were ably assisted by Hulki Oruz (TUR), the local coordinator. Hulki organized the seminar on short notice and did an excellent job.
The Istanbul Sailing Club was an ideal venue for the seminar with good classroom facilities and convenient restaurants and hotels. We are grateful to the Turkish Sailing Federation and the Istanbul Sailing Club who supported the seminar extensively.
The seminar was taught interactively, and we had many lively discussions about seminar topics and ways in which they thought the certification and recertification process for ISAF race officials could be improved.
ISAF assumes that participants have extensive knowledge of the Rules of Part 2 and the Definitions before they attend the seminar. Very little of the seminar is devoted to teaching the Rules of Part 2. Most of our candidates came from nations where there is no national program for training judges. They suggested an optional day on the right-of-way rules be available prior to the seminar.
Candidates had many suggestions for improving the seminar and test.
• Send the practice test and many of the exercises out electronically before the seminar so they would have time to prepare. It is not practical to expect candidates to do exercises at night during the seminar.
• Add an optional extra day prior to the seminar to cover Rules of Part 2 and the Definitions.
• Delete topics from the seminar that are covered in detail in the ISAF Judges’ Manual.
• Spend more time on group exercises involving hearings, finding facts, citing rules, reaching conclusions and making decisions.
• Give the test in color rather than in black-and-white.
• Include shorter, simpler sentences in Part B to make it easier to comprehend.
• Give the test in three parts. Give Part A after the optional extra day on Rules of Part 2 or at the beginning of the current seminar.
• Give Part B after sessions on hearings and protest procedures.
• Give Part C after practice exercises on finding facts, citing rules, reaching conclusions and making decisions.
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