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Question Are these sail marks compliant with the RRS?
Question Details

Are the sail marks shown below compliant with the RRS as modified by Appendix E?

Answer

RRS Appendix E8 G1.4 (a) requires national letters to be in 'capital letters'. The 'K' in this set of letters does not look like a capital letter in the same type face as the 'U' and 'R' so these do not comply.


P1030962


 


RRS Appendix E8 G1.4 (a) requires marks to be of the 'same colour'. It also requires them to be 'clearly legible'. These numbers are formed by infilling a black outline with green so they do not comply with the requirement to be of the same colour. They may also fail on legibility because the green is not as opaque/dark as other colours.


P1030526 


 


This set of national letters fail to comply for the same reason.


P1030527


 


RRS Appendix E8 G1.4 (a) requires marks to be 'clearly legible'. Where the body of the sail is a mix of materials of different colours there can be problems choosing a colour for the sail marks that will meet the 'clearly legible' requirement.


Here the owner has used white marks instead of black. Are they 'clearly legible'? Would black sail marks be more 'clearly legible'? If the appointed equipment inspector at an event reports this to the race committee they shall bring a protest against the boat which the jury will decide on. 


P1030955 


 


RRS Appendix E8 G1.4 (a) requires marks to be 'clearly legible'. The race committee at the world championships in Lake Garda, 2016, complained about marks that had strokes that were relatively thin because they were not very legible at a distance.


The same or better legibility than Helveitica is acceptable. Assuming the standard (not bold, narrow or condensed) font is meant by this the ratio of stroke thickness to height for Helvetica is between 12 and 14% of the height. The example below looks less than this and is likely to be less 'clearly legible'.


P1030960        22


 


This set of national letters probably fail to comply for the same reason. The gaps created by the use of a stencil do not help.


P1030961


 


The vertical spacing of marks is controlled by RRS Appendix E8 G1.5 (a). Where there is sufficient space available on the sail this is currently a minimum of 60 mm.


The example here does not meet that requirement.


P1030956


 


The height of marks is controlled by RRS Appendix E8 G1.4 (b) which specifies the height of numbers to be 100 mm mimimum and 110 mm maximum. The variation in these is greater than the permitted variation.


The spacing of marks is controlled by RRS Appendix E8 G1.5 (b) which specifies the spacing of numbers to be 20 mm mimum and 30 mm maximum. The spacing in these is less than 20 mm.


P1030957


 

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