Not really, but...
What do you get when you put 83 Snipes from 18 different countries—all of whom had to qualify for the regatta, so they are speedy and assertive—on one starting line, with wind shifting through perhaps 40 degrees every few minutes, when there’s no real incentive to stay behind the starting line? Chaos.
That’s what we experienced for many of the starting sequences at the Snipe World Championship, held in Talamone, Italy, in September. On the plus side, we did get in a number of extra “practice” starts!
Here’s the scenario. The coastline off Talamone runs northwest to southeast. Locals told stories of a delightful seabreeze that would come in from the west-southwest, unhampered by any land masses except perhaps the over-the-horizon Corsica, or closer-in Isola del Giglio (known as the island where the Costa Concordia ran aground). We did enjoy that 15-knot seabreeze for a few, fleeting moments during the six-day-long regatta, mostly at the beginning of the event.
But the week went on, and after a low-pressure system smacked the fleet one day with 25-35 knot winds and overhead-height waves, the wind shifted around to blow almost, but not quite, parallel to the shoreline. With winds coming from slightly to the west of north, and rolling down the Tuscan hills to create a little more confusion—puffs coming off the land would come from 285 one minute, and then 305 a few minutes later.
While here on the Chesapeake, we’re quite used to shifty, light breeze, this was a different animal all together: It was blowing a tantalizing but very puffy 10-18 knots, and all 83 teams were eager to use that breeze to get off the line and in front of the competition as quickly as possible.
I have started on one line in fleets of close to 100 boats before, and it has worked out okay—but on those occasions, only perhaps half of the fleet was truly intent on being in the front row and toward the favored end of the line. This was a unique situation.
All of which made getting a start off very challenging for the Race Committee for two days of the regatta. For two frustrating days, we were on the water for eight hours, but only got one race in each day. Most starting sequences happened with the “P” flag (the standard “preparatory” visual signal) going up at four minutes.
As many RCs will do, when there are many boats over the line due to conditions beyond the fleet’s control (such as a large right shift that encourages the entire fleet to start at the boat end of the line), the RC at Talamone generally flew “AP” rather than the first substitute (general recall) flag in this situation, meaning no penalty for boats that were over the line when the starting signal went off. But what if you actually want to get some races off to determine the World Champion?
The RC needs to reach into their bag of tricks—the flag bag—to emphasize to competitors that they mean business (there are other methods: rabbit starts, mid-line boats). They have several options:
Black flag: The old-school method for keeping boats behind the line. If you’re in the triangle between the ends of the starting line and the first mark of the course during the last minute before the start, you’ll be disqualified (assuming, of course, that the RC jots your number down, and they’re usually pretty good at that!), end of story. There are a few additional details (see Racing Rules of Sailing 30.3) to be clear on, as well, but if you’ve already been black-flagged in a start that is being restarted (as after a general recall), and you play in that starting sequence and race, your DSQ can turn into a nondiscardable DND!
Z flag: The black flag is a pretty harsh penalty, and thankfully many classes have found other methods that achieve the same goal, such as the Z flag. Under the Z flag, it’s the same concept—under a minute to go, if you’re in that triangle, you’ll get a 20 percent penalty tacked onto your score, even if you do go back and restart cleanly. Z flags are “cumulative.” If you are Z flagged in a start that is then general recalled, and the second starting sequence is also under Z flag and (oops) once again you are Z flagged, you would get two 20-percent penalties added to your score. Not a regatta crusher, but a significant deterrent.
I flag: Under the I flag, if you are on the course side of the starting line (or its extensions—an interesting twist!) in the last minute before the start, you will need to go around one of the ends of the starting line (generally the signal boat or pin at the other end) to “clear” yourself before heading up the course cleanly, rather than just dipping down below the line in the middle of the start line. The I flag can also encourage boats to start toward the ends of the line; this sometimes creates big pileups of boats, especially at the favored end of the line, as boats ready themselves for potentially needing to round an end, which can create more trouble than it’s worth.
In Talamone, eventually, the RC started using the Z flag in place of the P flag. As if by magic (sarcasm alert!), the fleet started behaving better and backed off the line just enough to get some racing going.
I joked with my skipper whenever the P flag went up that “P is for practice start,” and that was generally the case. Under the Z flag, we finally got to do the racing we were there to enjoy.
Regatta website: snipeworlds2015.com
Ridiculously good regatta photos: capizzano.com/2015snipeworlds
by Kim Couranz
