Finishing boats under spinnaker can be challenging for even the best of race committee teams, and in many classes the spinnakers do not have sail numbers.

Picture a class of boats that are racing in a large competitive fleet and finishing downwind. Sport boat classes such as the VX One and SB20, or off the beach classes 29er, 49er or Formula 18 catamaran are good examples of this. There might be four or six boats overlapped as they approach the finish line and none carry numbers on their spinnakers, and they will turn on some great speeds downwind in most conditions except the lightest giving the finish boat remarkably little time to get the order of boats.

For the examples given, the boats are complying with the Racing Rules of Sailing and their class rules. Rule 77 requires boats to comply with Appendix G and the Australian Sailing prescription to that appendix. Appendix G sets out requirements for World Sailing classes which includes carrying sail numbers on spinnakers and allows for other classes to be governed by the rules of the national authority, Australian Sailing, of their class association. Australian Sailing does not make any rules concerning sail numbers on non-World Sailing classes, so it is down to the class rules.

Given that Appendix G requires World Sailing classes to carry sail numbers on their spinnakers, how do they comply with the rules and where have the sail numbers gone? Further in Appendix G is rule G5 that allows a World Sailing class to change the rules of this appendix provided the changes have first been approved by World Sailing. Which World Sailing seem to approve as a matter of course.

There are some solutions to the problem of finishing boats without sail numbers on their spinnaker which race committees could use. One approach could be to finish them up wind or on a short leg that is shy enough to require them to drop their spinnaker and finish two sail reaching on cracked sheets. Another is to require and issue bow numbers. The former may be simpler. Whilst using bow stickers is quite commonplace, they need to be sourced, issued, managed, and maintained. Often impractical over a season.

Ultimately, if the race committee cannot identify boats finishing under spinnaker something will change. No competitors like being incorrectly scored let alone given a DNF because they could not be found as boats finished.

The Racing Rules of Sailing can be viewed here https://www.sailingresources.org.au/class-assoc/racing-rules/

By Glen Stanaway https://www.sailing.org.au/about/ourstaff/