The competition maps that will be used for Louna-Jukola are well on their way to be encased. The arduous work has been ongoing in a warehouse in Turku. It was begun after Easter and ought to be completed by the First of May. Although the whole project won’t be finished off by May Day, because manual checking and organising the maps per team will continue well into May.
The overall work will be completed by about 50 volunteers, some having done their share already, some still working on the project. The number of shifts also varies within the volunteers – some work a single shift, others ten shifts. And there isn’t lack of work, as the overall working hours the process requires are estimated to be at around 500.
– There will be over 13,000 maps enclosed in plastic map cases for the Jukola relay and a good 5,000 maps for the Venla relay, counts the Map and Course Manager Marko Virta.
– The biggest problems with the project are withholding the whole process together. There could’ve been a bit more shelf space reserved for the maps due to the number of different types of maps, contemplates the person managing the project, Ilkka Aakula.
The project of encasing the maps also includes seaming and thus enclosing the map cases. Proper enclosing of the cases prevents the map from being harmed by moisture or getting lost from the case.
Kaija Hulkkonen (on the left) encases maps and Tuulikki Harittu seams map cases. The tables will be used as counters in the restaurant of Louna-Jukola.
When the maps are printed they are put into the map cases based on the forkings within them, every leg’s every course option at a time. After this the maps are organized by the number of the leg that the map is for.
At this point the maps of both Venla and Jukola relays’ 100 best, ergo the teams with the smallest numbers are gone through so to say by hand. With this it’s made certain that the top teams won’t be affected by random errors resulting from the printing.
– Overall there are 1,100 maps to be checked. That’s a small evening project for the Course Controller Ilkka Saarimäki, ponders Virta.
After the Course Controller has signaled green the maps of each team number – of both Venla and Jukola relays – are collected and folded into the same ”sack”, excluding the maps for the opening legs. Then right before the competition starts these sacks are attached to the map stands at the changeover area, and because the maps for both Venla and Jukola relays are in an ”order” within the sacks there is no need for moving and changing the sacks between the relays.
Not all maps will be encased. The competitors are receiving wholly new maps on the Jukola Sunday morning – without the map cases. This year these maps will have for the first time both the competitor’s own course and all controls of the competition.
A map sack to be attached to the map stand at the changeover area.
