Sail Numbers – Visibility
April 10, 2008A timely reminder sent out by the speed world cup team has relivance for all competitive events.
We noticed a lot of almost impossible to read sailnumbers during the latest events. We take this for reason to give you some hints about do’s and don’ts – always remember that your sailnumber is your brand mark, if we can’t read it, you will not be timed. So please go carefully through the following list and check if your sailnumbers are ok.
Do’s:
- Size must be minimum 23 centimeters, with a spacing of 4.5 cm between the digits
- The font used must be arial, helvetica or better readable. Fancy fonts look nice, but are not readable !
- The color of the sailnumber must be contrasting to the sail. Black on white sails, or orange on black sails
- The numbers must be on both sides of the sail
- Numbers for starboard (sailing from left to right) above numbers for port tack (sailing from right to left)
- If numbers are attached to the sail back to back, then they must be on solid ground
- Numbers should be positioned as far as possible towards the leech of the sail, not towards the mast
- Numbers must be positioned above the event stickers, not just somewhere in the sail
Don’ts
- Small numbers, no spacing between digits
- Fancy style fonts
- Numbers positioned back to back without solid background, except for numbers 8, 101, 808 etc
- Grey duck tape on grey Neil Pryde sails
- Numbers hidden behind the mast
- No numbers for port tack (remember, a 2 looks like a 5 from the other side)
