First thing this morning we wheeled the boat into the warehouse which has been turned into a measuring shed for the event. First the boat had to be weighed, with the rudder, mast and sheets removed. Then we had to get the sails checked and marked as approved for the event. Finally we had the mast and boom checked. This all went very quickly and easily, and we thought we were almost ready to be signed off as legal to race..
However, when it came to checking the position of the mast in the boat, we and two of the other Silver boats from New Zealand had problems with the mast being allowed too far back (or the sidestays being fixed too far forward, depending which way you look at it). 
So half a dozen of us spent some time making chocks for the back of the mast gates, and then fixing them into the boats, before we could get the all-important measurer's tick of approval. It took all morning, but at last we have our bow number and we're allowed to race. After all that we went for a couple of hours' sail in the afternoon. This was an interesting experience because the waves were much bigger than we would ever sail in in Auckland - to get 1.5 metre seas we'd probably have to have winds well over 30 knots, which would be too strong for us to sail Fifteens in. Here, on the other hand, we had waves of 1 to 1.5 metres with a wind strength of only 15 knots or so. For the most part they weren't getting into the boat: in fact, it was not the biggest waves that caused the problems, but the occasional pair of waves which were not so big but were close enough together that the stern was still on the peak of the first while the bow was burying into the second. On the whole the bailers were doing their job, more or less keeping up with whatever water got in from the occasional wave over the bow, and of course as soon as we turned downwind they sucked out any remaining water in very short order.
Tomorrow we'll have a rest day, and go and see some sights. Then the racing starts on Sunday with the Invitation Race (which is not actually part of the championship) and then race one of the Nationals. We've just learned that they're going to split the fleet for the Nationals between Silvers/Classics on one course and Open on the other. We'll have to sail in the Open fleet to be eligible to qualify for the Worlds the following week. It remains to be seen how many of the other Silvers and Classics decide to do the same - there was a fair bit of grumbling around the containers when the news was spread...
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