ISAF Host First Seminar For In-House Certification Programme

The first ever ISAF In-House Certification (IHC) seminar took place at the ISAF Secretariat over the weekend of 14-15 March.

ISAF Member National Authorities (MNAs) that had showed an interest in the scheme were invited to take part. The seminar was attended by representatives from Sweden, Italy, Denmark and The Netherlands. ISAF representatives also attended, including Dick BATT (GBR), chairman of the ISAF Equipment Committee and members of the ISAF Technical & Offshore Department. Bas EDMONDS also attended from the Royal Yachting Association, who has successfully implemented the IHC scheme in Great Britain.

The weekend started with a day of introduction to the IHC scheme and then an instructor’s course aimed at training In-House Official Measurers for sail measurement at the manufacturer. The second day was used to go through the criteria and responsibilities of the interested parties in the In-House Certification scheme, including ISAF, the National Authority and the manufacturer.

Rob TAYLOR, In-House Certification co-ordinator at the ISAF Secretariat said, “It is important that ISAF get as many Member National Authorities involved in the scheme as we rely on them to be the authorising authority, complete training and conduct audits of manufacturers within their jurisdiction. We were very pleased to have theses nations attend and hope that more nations will get involved as they see it successfully working in other countries.”

The ISAF In-House Equipment Certification (IHC) Programme is a scheme whereby satisfactory equipment control is achieved and equipment certified by manufactures through the application of a Certification Quality Management System under licence issued by the ISAF directly or via an ISAF delegate.

The IHC programme passed a major milestone at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games with the first set of self-certified sails used at the Olympic Sailing Competition in Qingdao.

For more information on IHC visit the ISAF In-House Equipment Certification microsite at www.sailing.org/ihc.