Draft stripes

Why? Don't they help you see where the draft is in the sail and help to determine how much draft you have? Why did you comment specifically about on the starting line? What about draft stripes on a practice or recreational sail?
 
Because if you are OCS in a pack of boats it's easy to pick out the one with draft stripes. For that reason in many competitive classes ( I also sail a Thistle) most boats are white so they don't stand out on the starting line.
 
For practice perhaps a good idea. But don't overdo it: make sure that you can still 'read' the sail when you're in competition with a sail without the stripes.

Because if you are OCS in a pack of boats it's easy to pick out the one with draft stripes

Exactly that's why many sailors try to have dark coloured spray tops, no fluorescent caps or beanies and certainly no name on the bow... I even know a sailor who rejected a boat because the number was too easy... (ended with '000'). He took another from the dealer's showroom.
 
I have not sailed my Laser for many years and am thinking about adding draft stripes to my old sail so that I can more easily see the effects of my sail trim adjustments. Once I "master" the settings again, or if I want to race, I would probably buy a new sail (although the new sail would have slightly different settings) and I should be able to see the draft depth and position better due to the increased experience on the boat again.
 
One reason you don't see them is that they are not permitted under the Fundamental Rule.
You would be hard pressed to find an International Measurer that would enforce that, particularly as you are permitted self advertising including graphics on the sail.
 
Ignorant but curious here. Is it that draft stripes cause a boat to stand out and more likely to be seen if committing a penalty?
 
Laser Radial Worlds 2006: German boats with draft stripes in national colours: ISTR they had to come off.
They were wrong to do so. Had the German team argued that it was advertising for the German Team / German Sailing Federation, then as long as it does not contravene the Advertising Code, it is legal.
 
Ignorant but curious here. Is it that draft stripes cause a boat to stand out and more likely to be seen if committing a penalty?
Anything that allows your boat to stand out uniquely on the starting line and to be later identified i.e when your sail number becomes visible will assist the race committee to uniquely identify you, even as you cross the finishing line.
 
Anything that allows your boat to stand out uniquely on the starting line and to be later identified i.e when your sail number becomes visible will assist the race committee to uniquely identify you, even as you cross the finishing line.

Are draft stripes the same as "tells"? And (I am a bit reticent to ask this) would sailors rather stand out or not or does it depend on their status in the race?
 
Are draft stripes the same as "tells"?
No, if you by "tells" mean telltails, which are pieces of thread or light cloth taped on a sail to show whether the flow is turbulent or not. The stripes are tapes that go horizontally from luff to leech, to show the horizontal profile of the sail.

Draft stripes are quite useless in a crosscut sail (like the Mark 1 Standard and the 4.7), because the seams do the same job really.

would sailors rather stand out or not or does it depend on their status in the race?
If you're over the starting line before the starting signal, you don't want to stand out, no matter what your "status in the race" is (whatever you mean by that).

That said, I don't think that the "sore thumb" phenomenon at the starting line actually is nearly as big a deal as it's usually believed. I've been catching premature starters countless times, at both ends of the line, and every white or grey boat that deserved an OCS got it :D

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Have to agree with LaLi. If you are on the RC, we look for bows crossing the line early. Then we try to find the associated sail number (which may be obscured by other sails). A colored (non grey or white) hull will help with the identification!
 
Well... what I actually tried to say is that it's not worth buying a boring-coloured boat just to try to hide in the starting-line crowd :rolleyes:
After a long hiatus, I was working on a committee boat again last summer, at the Zoom 8 class worlds. Almost all the boats were white, and they have similar red sail numbers... Not from the same regatta but this is how it looked:

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In reality, it was actually reasonably easy to pick out the premature starters from the two fleets of 50 boats each. This is how I remembered it from past events as well, so I still don't think there's a point in trying to "camouflage" yourself.

But to stay on topic, draft stripes on a Laser may be useful when learning to adjust a radial-cut sail, but I'm not sure if they're worth the trouble even then.

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