Starts V - Visual examples

Examples of Start Images which demonstrate some principles we have been discussing



In this shot of a Farr 40 regatta in Miami: there is a pin end bias and the pack have gathered here with the mid line sparse after half way.  The important point in the image is though is that  you can see that one boat is on port, and I would say that he is quite likely dead on the IDM / Committee boat layline on that tack, and he will sail behind the boats we can at least see. It would be interesting to hear the exact story, but here we can only say that either they were late , had to take a penalty or where just going to go right on port asap.

Te Farr forty is at the top of amateur racing so the italian team are certainly doing this intentionally and there may be another boat tacking to the left who is going to join them in a "get right quick" strategy after not quite making the favoured end.

In this shot here you can see a handicap fleet starting a Trans Pacific Race: Why are some boats so far back? The big monohull will sit on the wind of the boats to its right long enough to obliviate the pin end advantage which seems to be at play here.

An apparently even start line on an off shore- why again are so many boats seemingly late? It looks as if two boats are right on the line and confident with it- which you need to be with maybe 48 hours or more racing ahead of you!

You can see a classic stand off position from the boat second in from the IDM- they are a little unsure of the time to get up the line, with other boats right on the line AND having space to reach off if the bowman calls it in the mid line. What this boat second in is intent on is halting the progress of what looks like an identical boat which is standing the IDM: the first boat is luffing enough to slow progress and will not pressure the boat on the layline without getting really head to wind so it is a waste of time: they should be bearing off and going for a fast start.

This could have been a nice orderly OD start but the line is probably a good deal too short, and the committee are wise guys, setting a few degrees of bias down the line so they can see OCS boats more easily when the bouy end is a little up wind!
So there is a "stramash" as we say in Scotland, around the pin end and without doubt  ( you can see a flag still up above the boom of the RC) USA 2901 and 2917 are OCS, and the blue hulled boat although within his rights is too high to get speed on and will firstly be squeezed up even more,  rolled over the top too and finally, maybe slip sideways and hit the pin bouy!

Example of a really badly laid line or a big wind shift at 30 seconds to go: the boats are barely laying the pin end while sailing just low of the line. Luckily everyone is on port because starboard is just a waste of time here.  You can see a boat who is just way out the game down to leeward: he is maybe in the old wind, but otherwise, he has not been up to the line prestart and has no idea !  Been there, done it, have probably a tee shirt from an Event I would rather not wear in sailing company!

With boats which cost millions of spondoolics, in effect priceless on top of that, the J class start shows a very orderly start by pro crews - the gambit for lanes has happened maybe 300 to 500 m behind the  and they all have a solid lane out of the start and are not interested in little luffing matches. They waBlogger is a free blog-publishing tool from Google for easily sharing your thoughts with the world. Blogger makes it simple to post text, photos and video onto your personal or team blog.nt speed, they want to be the one who gets the bow ahead and starts to give windshadow or open tactical options up on the fleet.

At the other end of yacht racing, the new OD J70 sports boats: Starting here in a very typical one design  start, with a good first rack of boats, one or two having taken the lead top 3 positions while there are a few stragglers falling off the back. The line looks very evenly set, and they have elected to have a gaurd boat at the pin end to spot OCS.   The one boat with a three digit sail number which is furthest out may look to be in the danger zone of OCS, but in fact you can see that they had a large gap to leeward to fall off into and punch through on the start with max speed.

If you look closely at the flag on the pin end, you can perhaps see that there could be a slight bias on the line, which maybe is just an oscillation, but certainly there were very few boats which started up at the boat end. This suggests alternatively that the fleet were early and the tide drove them down the line.

Whatever, the boats in the second rack have missed out big time: they failed to book a lane at 1 minute most likely having maybe spotted the slight wind bias developing and going to that end, or being just late up to the start area. They would have been better off booking a lane in a less busy area because even a 5 ' bias here is wasted if you are two boat legnths behind and low on a "whole bunch of boats".

In this youtube video of I believe the then reigning world champions in the Platu 25 ( ESP 25068) you see an example of the tactic we used in the sigma 33 nationals at Cork in 1996: the fleet are really early on the line and they are ragging and nudging each other forward. So we hung back until there was a good enough gap and then we got the "hook" on a boat to windward, but did not edge forward. As with this platu, we then had space to accelerate forward and fall off a little on as the boat to leeward left hand ahead fell off to get some speed on.

On a non biased line, the pin end will often be stopped up by some guy who just wants to start there and is way early. They can stuff the whole fleet by standing there ragging, acting like a book end. As with the guy above, you can become dead in the water and allow other people to sail under and over you- it is better not to be so close to the line at 30 seconds when there is plenty of space and no real need to be at that end- you could have reached down on STB from further along, or folded over from port reaching once you can stand the pin plus a bit in the bank. This guy is a "marshmallow" as Etchells sailors seem to call poor starters who open opportunities for whiley-cayotees.

unfortunately the other video from a worlds practice session is now deleted - this showed a dinghy / Sportsboat approach to a late lane at max speed, reaching in. I think it was the same person who posted the ESP 25068 practice above.

The (beneteau) Platu 25 is a great little boat from the last era of elegant boats IMHO before the chine, multi and square top took over !  A great boat to sail because it sails like bigger sporty yachts while also behaving like a dinghy, and on a budget about half of that of a melges 24 with reasonable OD sails in the package.

  Platu Schplatu! What the F*??  This is pretty much barging, but the guy has at least an idea that he is on the layline for the boat end, which is obviously bloody well biased because there is a swarm of boats up there in about four layers that this guy punches through. "if there was space when the overlap was established" taken to its extreme and failed in what looks like a couple of collisions.

More typical of a 36 to 46 foot handicap fleet, with a pack on the boat end coming in from way out, while some boats a third of the way down are lined up and ragging really near the line, maybe being pushed towards the line by tide.

The boat the camera is on should be right up there on the bow to the guy to windward instead of chickening out: i effect this is the boat that can control the whole pack and steel many places from some hot guys by braking them up: they are the lowest boat and could luff up and sneek up to the bow of the guy above. When they just fall off with the crowd, they then encounter a lane issue with the idiots in the dark blue stripey (X-362s ? ) boat ahead of them who are way early and dead in the water. They are now committed to realisticaly going under them but instead they just luff up and sail towards their transom!! Power on, into the lower lane and come out at speed. You had a guy counting and in this type of mixed boat start, coming off at your best VMG 10 seconds late is better than sitting in bad air!!

The same race series actually: These guys are clewed up, although whistling at the windward boat in an ORCi worlds may not count as "hailing" in the room.  They get at about

Firstly note they reach in on Port, but are pretty careful with plenty of space around them, caution over bravado, and also they KEEP UP. Finally they get a lay line really near the (tiny) RC boat at 1.00 on the film and a little to windward probably, which is 1 min 20 to the start, a lot closer than you may think and you need to be this close for this style of controlling start where you want to OWN that lane out. They also have a carbon rig which means they are likely to be a stripped out racing boat with fast acceleration.


. Note when they tack over to starboard, they do not fall off onto close hauled until they need to keep way on for steerage. This way they dont loose the start point for the lane out, rather they hold position and judge what the boats around them are up to and check the time.

At 1.40 into the film they start to squeeze up actually, keeping way on and pinching up towards the RC end, but seemingly with lots of space under them: therefore they are wary for boats behind them and ready to defend that space. At 1.56, presumably 20 second before the start, a boat powers on and comes down onto them, trying to roll them, but they don't let him- they call and call him up, until he brakes back by the start ( which you hear, 2.19 on the film)

Note that at 1:50 they are about 4 or five boat lengths back of what is likely to be the line, and only about two boat legnths DDW from the RC.

Criticism here is that in fact they probably waste a bit of time and speed in fighting the big Elan or whatever it is trying to roll in, they could have borne off at 30 seconds as there is a huge gap to lee. I presume there is a pack of boats on the RHS out of shot as you hear shouting and he does bear away on the Elan to give him space to avoid the boat above but then luffs him again when the ELan gets space. Good tactics, but you want to get off the start line pimped up - I bet you they are still accelerating 20 seconds into the race and not yet at max VMG. They could have reached off with the Elan and cranked up nicely to really punch out, but maybe they are slower and needed to lee bow the elan to get out, or maybe they were trying to mess up the race for a close competitor in the series out of shot, RHS: ORCi attracts some serious sailors in Scandinavia at least where this was filmed at the ORCi worlds, B class.

Being there but not too early is what it is about. Different boats have then different line up prestart when lanes are chosen, and you have to read if the race is orderly or there will be either a reaching charge from outside the line area, the RC boat end down, a slow, late start or if everyone is lined up but either early or late. In ny case you want to avoid this position, even though it is "sheet and shoot" catamarans, the buy in the obvious Hobycat is just onto a loser with anything more than 5 seconds to the gun

Here, GBR 801 has to luff up in this J80 fleet. Otherwise he risks colliding with GBR 165 and in any case, the three boats on the pin end are going for the line and the last one does not look like he can lay the line if that is pin end bouy and not a leeward mark!  I reckon he cannot judge from his telltales that he is way low on the wind, and with his main ragging he is a bit clueless. Zoom lenses compress things big time, but in this one, guys, time to luff the heck up and get off the start line.

Being late though: in this nice little series from a YC I sailed at in the same type of boat when there were just three or four , the 707: in the three vid's you see that there is a fresh wind, and agile boats, but there are folks way to far back of the line mid fleet and the pack are stuffing up their start by not getting speed on , rather messing everyones start up a bit in the last two videos.

I am yet to find an onboard Go Pro with a film of  a perfect runway out at 30 seconds or so, or one who comes in long and luffs up near close hauled on to a lane from 1 minute or more out. However the bad examples kind of educate you as to where is good:

Good feel, good place , good lane depends on your boat: a long keel classic will not respond to being luffed hard, or sitting with ragging sails, while in a sportsboat fleet, pointing and shooting the layline for your prefered start lane is a bit ludicrous- you are better being up there, controlling the boats around you as it develops from 1 minute and longer out.  One thing you will notice is that well placed boats in OD fleets or decent racer HC fleets are pretty high up, within 5 boat legnths to the line DDW at 2 minutes out, and then often within 3 boatlegnths DDW from the line , which means about 5 to 8 boat legnths to sail over the line, which is about 20 - 30 seconds out ( think, boat speed average 5 knots in this phase, which is 2.5m/s which is 4 seconds to 6 seconds per boat legnth which is then about 20 seconds for a safe start where you can either then luff if you see you are early, or bear away if you have that opportunity.

Here are though some links to still shots of the nice wee 707s starting and you can see that there is some very good lane control prestart!