Early Starters
Categories:
Skipper’s Corner | Tactics
By Dave Acree
For this series of Sailing Tips, we are going to begin at the start of a race with one of the most common problem, over the starting line early. I am not going to talk about how not to be over the starting line early, instead what to do when you are.
The first thing to understand is if your boat is over the starting line before the starting ding on the clock, you now have no rights. The first task you need to do is re-round the start mark and re-start. Before you can do that, you now have another problem. Since you are over the starting line early, you have many boats behind you that have started correctly, see Figure 1.
Many times I have seen an early boat try to hard tack toward the starting buoy, to re-round and start over right in the way of other boats! Soon as this occurs, you are now in their way, remember that you must keep clear of other boats while tacking. Remember this too, you have no rights and now you probably have gotten a penalty called on you for tacking and not keeping clear.
So what do you do? It is very simple, since you are over the starting line early and you have boats on both sides of you, let out your sails and stop. That may be hard to do, but that is your only choice. By having your boat come to a stop and letting other boats pass you, this is the only way to re-start without any more penalties. Once the other boats are clear of you, you may proceed to re-round the start mark and re-start the race with full rights, see Figure 2.
Stop and think about this for a while, by coming to a complete stop without tacking and letting other boats pass, you keep your boat out of more hot water than what you are in. This will increase your chances of getting back into the race to win!
For this series of Sailing Tips, we are going to begin at the start of a race with one of the most common problem, over the starting line early. I am not going to talk about how not to be over the starting line early, instead what to do when you are.
The first thing to understand is if your boat is over the starting line before the starting ding on the clock, you now have no rights. The first task you need to do is re-round the start mark and re-start. Before you can do that, you now have another problem. Since you are over the starting line early, you have many boats behind you that have started correctly, see Figure 1.
Many times I have seen an early boat try to hard tack toward the starting buoy, to re-round and start over right in the way of other boats! Soon as this occurs, you are now in their way, remember that you must keep clear of other boats while tacking. Remember this too, you have no rights and now you probably have gotten a penalty called on you for tacking and not keeping clear.
So what do you do? It is very simple, since you are over the starting line early and you have boats on both sides of you, let out your sails and stop. That may be hard to do, but that is your only choice. By having your boat come to a stop and letting other boats pass you, this is the only way to re-start without any more penalties. Once the other boats are clear of you, you may proceed to re-round the start mark and re-start the race with full rights, see Figure 2.
Stop and think about this for a while, by coming to a complete stop without tacking and letting other boats pass, you keep your boat out of more hot water than what you are in. This will increase your chances of getting back into the race to win!