News Starting Lines

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billmcinnis

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The comments I’ve heard about the Worlds were that, generally, it was very well organized and run. The only adverse comment was that the starting lines were much too short, making it overly difficult to get a fair start. I think that this is fairly common at Sunfish regattas (in spite of the fact that the best sailors seem to cope with it). In addition to making it hard to start, it definitely contributes to the sometimes excessive number of general recalls.

There are many different opinions on the ideal line length, but, most rule-of-thumbs fall between 1 and 1.5 boat-lengths times the total number of boats. The lines at many regattas don’t come anywhere near that. I’ve been in a couple where you couldn’t fit all the boats through sideways.

Some classes have written race committee guidelines covering things like line length, port-end bias, maximum wind to start races in, length of races etc. I haven’t heard of anything like this in the Sunfish class and I wonder if it might be a good idea. They wouldn’t have to be mandatory and they might only be applied at major regattas like regionals and up. Another thing that’s sometimes done is to use line checkers. One or two of the better sailors in the fleet check the line and provide feedback to the RC. It’s not binding, but for information only.

I think the class should look into this. Any comments?
 
I share your pain. But an RC for a 100 boat fleet has a dilemma. 1.5 x 100 x a boatlength is almost half a mile.

Do you really want a start line that long? How long were the beats? Does it make sense to have a beat that is less than twice the length of the start line? How long does it take to sail half a mile from one end of the line to the other? If a half mile line is skewed by 5 degrees how much further upwind is the favored end? Just some thoughts.
 
"The Start" is quite often the misnomer in sailing i think.
Racing "Starts" at the Preparatory Signal. A 'good' start
is part and parcel of the "Race".
 

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I didn't say I thought 1.5x was a good number I only said that most guidelines fall into that range. You wouldn’t need that for Sunfish, but, 1x might be good in an average situation.

I never saw the document Smeulders attached and it’s excellent. It specifies a minimum of 10 feet which is about .75x and that seems reasonable. I wasn’t trying to criticize the Worlds, although from what I heard, they might not have met that requirement. The lines at a majority of regattas fine, but, I’ve been to a fair number that have had lines that were WAY too short, definitely less than 10 feet per boat. This includes regionals and a couple of other major regattas. It does tend to make the starts unfair. It increases the number of fouls (usually un-protested where the foulee gets screwed) and it contributes to general recalls.

It was just a thought that if there were guidelines covering the major points, it could let the RC know what we want without seeming to butt into their business.
 
By the way, Sunfish stacked up on the line at a 45 degree angle and actually touching each other take up almost 6 feet each.
 
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