Are you planning to participate in a régate?? A good identification during the race is necessary for all competitors as well as for the organizers. The international sailing authorities have standardized these identifications in order to standardize them.
A number - assigned for the life of the sailboat - is therefore written in the sail. More precisely, it is the initials of your country (FRA for France) and the sequential number corresponding to the list of boats registered in the country. The identifier consists of 3 letters of nationality, then 1 to 5 digits.
Some examples of national identifiers:
- BEL Belgium
- GBR Great Britain
- GER Germany
- ESP Spain
- LUX Luxembourg
- FRA France
- SUI Switzerland
- MY Monaco
You don't have a numéros??
This identifier is given by the FFV Sailing to whom you must request it.
You can make this request using the form available by clicking on the link at the bottom of the article.
Your request must be accompanied by a cheque for 15.00 euros payable to the FFVoile.
If you make your first osiris gauge contract this process will be automated. If you do a iRC certificate from UNCL you will need to request a sail number separately and from the FFV Sailing.
Visibility and position
The standard for these identifiers is given in the RRS (Racing Rules of Sailing).
The vertical position is above the first third of the mainsail height. The texts tell us "the sail numbers must be, when possible, entirely above an arc whose centre is the halyard point and whose radius is 60% the length of the fall" (RRS G1.1)
The identifiers must be placed on each side of the sail, the nationality must be glued over the numbers. For good visibility, the numbers on the port and starboard sides should be offset vertically. The highest numbers must be on the starboard side.
It is necessary to use capital letters and Arabic numerals, clearly legible and of the same colour. Commercially available typographies that provide equivalent or better readability than "?Helvétique?" are acceptable.
The size of the letters and numbers depends on the length of the boat:
- - 3.50 m (dinghies): 230 mm
- from 3.50 m to 8.50 m : 300 mm
- from 8.50 m to 11 m : 380 mm
- + more than 11 m: 450 mm
What do I need to do to put my letters and numéros? down correctly?
To get your identifiers to glue, you can get them in your sailmaker which will give you the right size. They are available in 3 colours.
To ensure that these numbers are installed yourself, here are some tips:
- Disembark your sail in a clean and dry place. With the sails in position, the result may suffer.
- Clean the area with a damp cloth and dry.
- Have a sharp pencil, a large ruler and an eraser (to erase lines after gluing).
- Identify the bonding areas for port and starboard identifiers
- Drawing horizontal lines to place the numbers will allow you to align the characters properly.
- Remove the liner (protection on the adhesive area) from a small area.
- Paste the character at the same time as you remove the liner
- After gluing, rub the numbers to raise the temperature, this will activate the glue
