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Interesting Article Thankyou. Question: How did you manage signalling individual recalls, by each section of line, so flag & sound signal on each starboard end boat? and if you had, had to what was the general recall plan? Any chance of seeing you sailing instructions and procedures/instructions to starting personnel. Thanks Tim

How fair is it to have 13 to 17 foot long inflatable boats in the middle of the starting line. I assume they are considered legal obstructions and cannot be touched by a racing vessel. Do they not create large holes in the middle of the starting line w/ 7 feet of the dinghy infront of the line and 10 feet of the boat behind the starting line. It seems to me that three boats will have the best starts when timming the transoms of an inflatable with the starting signal. And do the holes / gaps encourage some to tack immediatly on port or worse start on port? I see the advantage of this line set up if you were trying to start 2 or 3 seperate flights at the same time, granted the kids have to know which starting line would be theirs and not start in somebody elses flight / starting line. I also question the fairness of having the intermidiate boats sag back 3 feet so they can see the entire line- This makes the courese technically longer for the middle starting boats. As race comitte our primary concern is to provide the most fairest race course possible. The secondary concern is to try to provide as many races as possible. If the number of races is so important, then the PRO should reduce the number of legs or the distance of the race course to accomodate more starts. Starts are made so critical that the outcome of races depends more on the clean and clear start over the tactical decission made on the water during the race. I would prefer to place the emphasis on sailing decissions during the race, rather than a start, to win a race. Racers are supposed to “sight” the line to a fixed object on shore to establish a third point of reference for the starting line, not have an intermidiate mark(s) in the starting line. I honestly believe the intermidiate startig boats on the starting line create an unfair advantage for certain boats in the starting sequence. Now the question of what is fair comes up up again between general recalls i.e. toooo many starts taking too much time or giving more boats an “earned” advantage. What I do like is the extra sets of eyes to call over early’s, i.e allowing more boats (a higher %)to be individually recalled in lieu of an instant general recall.

Thanks all for the comments. For Steve P., the line was not from A to D but from A to B, B to C, and C to D; as diagrammed in the sailing instructions, which you do not have. Sorry about that confusion. Essentially there were three starting lines. As spotter on Signal boat, I only sighted to B. However, with so many “all clears” I was able to take pictures instead. Connie B., I’d love to run Orange Bowl some day with I-420s, club 420s, Lasers, Radials, and 4.7’s all using the same course. No generals, no delays, just lots of races. Until then, they should reduce drop races from two to one, which would reduce OCS’s and general recalls. This past year (including Optis) they had 346 OCS’s, 23 BFD’s and I wonder how many general recalls. Ken

We were on the water during the recent Opti New Englands and were very impressed by the efficiency of the starting line. The races went off like clockwork. It was amazing. We also liked the 4 flites instead of multiple flites with two colors for each start. They did not have to wait at the starting line for the second color to show up for the next start (this happens when you have 6-8 flights and keep switching the pairings for each race (blue vs pink and then yellow vs green and grey vs purple for race 1 and then blue vs yellow, etc. for race two). The way Kenny did it, Race 1 had four starts, gray, green, yello and purple. Race 2 the same. That night, the computers did a new split keeping the fleets balanced with the rock stars in different flites. The next day had the same four starts for each race. They got off 4 races each day. It was the most efficient Opti racing we have every seen…and we have seen more than our share between Orange Bowl and our time in the Class (My husband Rick was Opti Class President for several years and has been to several European, South American and World championships).

Hi Great article, good ideas, maybe this should be the new standard. Sounds also like it would be well to train race committes, or have them train themselves, as much as other sports train their officials.

I really like your article and agree with most of the sentiments, especially the reason fo r using ‘I’ flag. I am, however, concern by teh contradictory comments: “…we dropped both start boats “B” and “C”… back about three feet.” and ” … the race committee had not one or two, but six sets of eyes watching different parts of the line, one spotter on each end and two spotters in the middle boats looking both ways.”. If B and C aren’t on the line (and in the photo it is more like 3 yards (metres) than feet) then they can’t cal OCS. If I was starting on that line and having sighted the line, knew that B&C were behind, I would start just in front of them. Behind the line but in front of the observers. they would probably call me over when I’m not. That would never stand up with the Jury by the RC’s own admission that the line observers were behind the line.