sailnumber font and size

[Dave Pickett]

Well thanks to Tim I now have the very devil of sail numbers! Looking on the RG 65 forum the recommended sail numbers are massive and to me are out of scale with the boat.

Can anyone advice what size and font they have used, Ideally I am looking for a better looking font than just plain arial etc (with the proviso that it must be easily legible!)

[David Foster]

Hi Dave.

I wonder whether you will like 666 quite as much once you have made a template for the number 6. My boat is 266. Three  issues. Firstly, the hole in the centre means you either need a two part template or one with bridging pieces to keep the centre in place and, secondly, the whole thing is curves which you either have to draw and fill in if you are using a marker pen, or cut round if using fabric numbers. Third, 6 is one of the wider  numbers and you will have trouble fitting three numbers on some sails, particularly 'C' rig.

Depending on the size of your sailing waters, you will be glad that they are at least 80mm high! I would go for 80mm in Arial, probably Arial Narrow (so you can fit them in). Arial is one of the easiest typefaces to read at a distance.

Well, those are my thoughts on the matter anyway. Anybody else got any thoughts?

David.

[Chris More]

Arial Narrow is good, see if you can find a friend with a die cutter....

[Dave Pickett]

I have been looking at agency FB - see below, mainly straight lines, so easy(er) to cut out, but I can see that fitting the numbers onto a C rig jib is going to be a challenge! We tend to sail the DFs closer to the shore than the IOMs as they are smaller so readabilty of a smaller font isnt an issue, although it may not meet class rules. Still undecided!

666

[David Foster]

I see that both Dave & Chris appear to intend using 'stick-on' numbers. I notice that more than one sail manufacturer recommends using marker pens for the weight of material /film used by boats the size of DFs, presumably because the fabric used for stick-on stiffens up the sail material too much?

Just a thought.

[Dave Pickett]

Good point David and not one that has escaped me. I like my boats to look as neat as possible and ink is never as nice (did my MM in ink) but as you say there are performance issues so I may go the ink route. I do wonder whether it would suffice to number only the main sail, seems overkill on these small boats which are sailed rather closer to have dirty great numbers on both sails?

On balance U think I'll lay the sails out today and see how the numbers fit then get my steady hand and marker pen on the case, 

[Dave Pickett]

Actually I think the rules need to be revised, its pretty much impossible to put numbers the required size on the B jib, let alone the C. The numbers look massive compared to the boat and I 'm sure readability wont be an issue as these boats are generally sailed closer to the shore than IOMs for example. I now have the choice of putting numbers on in ink that fit but do not fit the rules, or putting numbers on full size which dont fit the jib and look like overkill......hmmmm   

[Thomas Armstrong]

Dave:

The RG65 rules inherit the sail-numbering logic from other classes. Size is needed for numbers to be readable from shore. They are needed on jibs to be able to tell who it was who crossed the starting line just before the bullet in a crowded start. There are no aesthetics considerations into this, just the practical needs of racing. Just put your numbers very low on the jib, where there is more space. 

Oh, yes, the sail graphics of the Dragon Force do not help. I would try to get Josway to change the graphics before trying to change the rules....

[David Foster]

I don't think the problem is as big as you think. The RG65 rules REQUIRE you to use 2 numbers. The DF65 rules state they follow the RG65 rules, but amended to ALLOW (capitals are mine) the use of 3 numbers. As I read it (and many others from what I have seen) that means you only need to use the last 2 numbers. Then, as with most classes, if there is a conflict and more than one boat has the same numbers, one can prefix the number temporarily with a 1, to differentiate.

Doing that, you can have 2 good numbers that fit, with room for a '1' if necessary! If Dave & I end up at the same meeting, one of us would have to stick a 1 on, as we would both be 66. The chances of a duplicate in a club would be pretty slim, I would think.

I may be wrong, but that is how I read the rules. Any comments, anyone?

David

[Chris More]

My sail number is 02 (as in 302).  At last years nationals there were three boats sailing with the number 02.  One stayed as 02 the next changed to 102, my sail number was asked to be changed to 021, but there is no room for a 1 after the sail number.  I ended up putting the 1 through the centre of the 0, which worked fine until I took it off.  Peeling it off  took off parts of the (inked) underlying zero, so my sails look pretty naf now.

Three numbers is a much better idea.  The RG65 rules only define a height and a stroke, there is no size for width, so numbers can be squashed in the width.

[Dave Pickett]

Well i bit the bullet and put the full 666 on the main sails which will be fine for club sailing which is all I intend to do. If I do get competitive I can just add the numbers to the jibs, I used ink and went full size as required.

[Tim Long]

Morning Folks,

I'm struggling to see the issue here, its all a matter of character spacing and condensing.

Take a look at the attached photo of a C suit, which has all its numbers applied without any problems at all.

I've put more complicated numbers, i.e. wider characters on without issue.

The idea of the DF class using three numbers is to prevent the clashes the Chris saw at last years Nationals.

It really can be done quite easily!

As for the ink vs vinyl argument this isn't confined to this class but is a worldwide debate.

Personally I use vinyl as I think it doesn't cause too much disadvantage particularly on the smaller rigs. The current National Champ uses vinyl numbers, didn't do him any harm.

Case closed?

[rowe...@gmail.com]

The ISAF RRS Appendix E8 allows for smaller numbers than Class dimensions so they can fit on the sail.