Sailing Thing #18: How to Start (Thing you should know if you want to take part in a sailing race 5)
Side note to all of you who know about the campaign - looks like I'm out of the running for the Olympics after all. :(
But. Moving right along ... today's post is about starting in a race.
In all the race course diagrams in previous posts, I've drawn out an imaginary start line that runs between two boats or a boat and a mark in the water. Here's the thing - that line is indeed imaginary. As I once heard a coach from the UK say, Well, it's not painted on the bleedin' water, is it?
Obviously there's no possible way to lay down a line IRL. You can't draw on water, duh. You can't lay a rope between the two boats because one, it will never lie straight with the waves and all, and two how on earth will you lift it all up at the same moment, so that the boats don't all get tangled in it the moment they start?
The second problem with starting is that unlike in, say swimming or sprinting, you cannot be stationary in the same spot waiting for a gun to fire. The wind and waves and current simply will not permit it. So you can't just line everybody up in a pit lane (which, remember, can't be drawn out!) and fire a gun for them to go.
The third problem is ... starting lines are rarely perfectly square to the wind. The reason for this is yes, human error, but also the wind shifts. If you're going to wait for it to be perfectly stable and perfectly 90 degrees ... you're never going to get a race started.
So with all these limitations, what do you do?
Well, I think the sailing community is quite genius for coming up with the timed starting sequence: get everyone to start their watches at the same time and then set 5 minutes later as the GO moment - and then let the sailors get to the line themselves. They can't go earlier than 5 minutes from the signal, but if they start late, that's their problem.
The 5 minute sequence is the most widely used starting sequence. It begins with a warning signal at T-5 minutes, at which the class flag will be flown from the race committee boat (the right side marker of the imaginary line). At T-4 minutes, the preparatory signal will go up - a flag that tells you which starting rule will be applied. There are 4 of these. The most common is the P flag (remember the nautical flags post?): a white rectangle within a blue rectangle. This flag means that if within the final minute before the start, a boat is over the line, they have the opportunity to dip back below the line without being called for premature starting.
Then there's the I flag (black circle within a yellow rectangle). It signals the 'round-the-ends' rule: if within the final minute before the start, a boat is over the line, they have to go round either of the ends of the start line to restart.
The Z flag (black, yellow, blue, and red triangles forming a square) rule doesn't allow a restart if you're caught over the line within the final minute - you get a penalty of 20% of the total number of boats added to your score automatically if you jump the gun.
And the black flag is the strictest of all: jump the gun on a black flag and it's automatic disqualification.
At T-1 minute, the preparatory flag (P, I, Z or black) will be lowered, as the signal that during this time, boats are not supposed to go over the line before T-0 start time. At this point, sailors will be timing their run in to the line so that they'll be able to hit it on the dot at full speed when the 5 minutes is up and the class flag comes down as the flag-off.
As you can imagine, this is a fair bit harder than standing on a block and pushing off at the starting gun! Which is why starts are a huge part of our training. A good start can make all the difference because if you screw up the start, you get stuck in dirty air from other boats.
Here, watch it in action - video is from the 470 men's start at last year's Olympic qualifier World Championships in Perth:
At the start of the clip, there's less than one minute to go (only the class flags are up) and you can see everyone jumping the gun when they all go before the flag goes down. (The start line is between the two orange flags.) So what happened was a recall (they call everyone back for a restart) and then the cameraman jumped to the next start, where it got off okay. You can see from the line-up that it's not precise - everyone's using estimation, and particularly in the middle, boats tend to start a little behind because it's really hard to get it right. (Try it yourself if you like - pick two points 100 metres or so apart and stand in the middle and try to determine whether you're spot on the imaginary line between the two points.)
And then after 2:00 or so it's just sailing action on the course. :) But it cuts back to another start around 3:00.
---
Take the 100 things challenge @ 100things_index
Masterlist Progress: 18/100
But. Moving right along ... today's post is about starting in a race.
In all the race course diagrams in previous posts, I've drawn out an imaginary start line that runs between two boats or a boat and a mark in the water. Here's the thing - that line is indeed imaginary. As I once heard a coach from the UK say, Well, it's not painted on the bleedin' water, is it?
Obviously there's no possible way to lay down a line IRL. You can't draw on water, duh. You can't lay a rope between the two boats because one, it will never lie straight with the waves and all, and two how on earth will you lift it all up at the same moment, so that the boats don't all get tangled in it the moment they start?
The second problem with starting is that unlike in, say swimming or sprinting, you cannot be stationary in the same spot waiting for a gun to fire. The wind and waves and current simply will not permit it. So you can't just line everybody up in a pit lane (which, remember, can't be drawn out!) and fire a gun for them to go.
The third problem is ... starting lines are rarely perfectly square to the wind. The reason for this is yes, human error, but also the wind shifts. If you're going to wait for it to be perfectly stable and perfectly 90 degrees ... you're never going to get a race started.
So with all these limitations, what do you do?
Well, I think the sailing community is quite genius for coming up with the timed starting sequence: get everyone to start their watches at the same time and then set 5 minutes later as the GO moment - and then let the sailors get to the line themselves. They can't go earlier than 5 minutes from the signal, but if they start late, that's their problem.
The 5 minute sequence is the most widely used starting sequence. It begins with a warning signal at T-5 minutes, at which the class flag will be flown from the race committee boat (the right side marker of the imaginary line). At T-4 minutes, the preparatory signal will go up - a flag that tells you which starting rule will be applied. There are 4 of these. The most common is the P flag (remember the nautical flags post?): a white rectangle within a blue rectangle. This flag means that if within the final minute before the start, a boat is over the line, they have the opportunity to dip back below the line without being called for premature starting.
Then there's the I flag (black circle within a yellow rectangle). It signals the 'round-the-ends' rule: if within the final minute before the start, a boat is over the line, they have to go round either of the ends of the start line to restart.
The Z flag (black, yellow, blue, and red triangles forming a square) rule doesn't allow a restart if you're caught over the line within the final minute - you get a penalty of 20% of the total number of boats added to your score automatically if you jump the gun.
And the black flag is the strictest of all: jump the gun on a black flag and it's automatic disqualification.
At T-1 minute, the preparatory flag (P, I, Z or black) will be lowered, as the signal that during this time, boats are not supposed to go over the line before T-0 start time. At this point, sailors will be timing their run in to the line so that they'll be able to hit it on the dot at full speed when the 5 minutes is up and the class flag comes down as the flag-off.
As you can imagine, this is a fair bit harder than standing on a block and pushing off at the starting gun! Which is why starts are a huge part of our training. A good start can make all the difference because if you screw up the start, you get stuck in dirty air from other boats.
Here, watch it in action - video is from the 470 men's start at last year's Olympic qualifier World Championships in Perth:
Click to viewAt the start of the clip, there's less than one minute to go (only the class flags are up) and you can see everyone jumping the gun when they all go before the flag goes down. (The start line is between the two orange flags.) So what happened was a recall (they call everyone back for a restart) and then the cameraman jumped to the next start, where it got off okay. You can see from the line-up that it's not precise - everyone's using estimation, and particularly in the middle, boats tend to start a little behind because it's really hard to get it right. (Try it yourself if you like - pick two points 100 metres or so apart and stand in the middle and try to determine whether you're spot on the imaginary line between the two points.)
And then after 2:00 or so it's just sailing action on the course. :) But it cuts back to another start around 3:00.
---
Take the 100 things challenge @ 100things_index
Masterlist Progress: 18/100