Commodore's Comments

What a start this past Sunday on the first race of the day! Everyone was really close to the line, and a few were over the line early.

So what does a preparatory signal mean? Generally speaking, they tell racers what is allowed at the start and what the penalties will be. When a preparatory signal is displayed during the starting sequence, that means a boat in the current starting sequence is considered to be racing. Removal signals one minute remaining in the starting sequence. Most races can make do with the P flag, which means there is no starting penalty, but there are 4 other preparatory flags a race committee can use to instate a penalty system for the final minute.

Now back to jumping the gun this past Sunday.

Do you know the process for recalling a boat that is OCS, or even what that means? OCS stands for On Course Side, and the committee boat is watching for this in the last minute prior to the start. A boat is OCS when any part of its hull is on the course side of the starting line (note that the 2021-2024 Racing Rules of Sailing changed this slightly by removing crew and equipment from the previous definition).

How do I know if I am over early?

The X flag, a white field with vertical blue cross, is displayed with one sound until the hull of each early boat is completely below the starting line or one of the extensions. This means a boat can just duck back under the line and be on its way again. If the race committee can't identify individual boats that were over early, a general recall will be made by displaying the first substitute and the sequence will be restarted.

Though any penalty system can be used with different preparatory flags for any start, they are typically introduced to avoid general recalls and get races off to a fair start in a minimally invasive way. The most likely penalty system to be used at a club level would be the I flag preparatory signal, a yellow field with black circle. This means that any part of a boat's hull that enters the triangle formed by the line and the first mark during the final minute must then sail around one of the ends of the line from the course side to start.

Watch out - these flags might appear at the Cowtown Showdown this weekend.