Start Line Length

Peter van Muyden, International Race Officer, and Wabamun Sailing Club member (near Edmonton) uses the following guideline for the length of a start line.

“Average length of a boat in the class x 1.5 x number of boats”

At the Glenmore Sailing Club, the Wednesday Night Racing Series often gets 15+ boats. This means that the starting line length should be as follows…

15 SanJuan 21s - 473 ft / 144 m

18 SanJuan 21s - 567 ft / 173 m

21 SanJuan 21s - 662 ft / 202 m

A start line of sufficient length provides fair and even opportunities at the start for all boats and is safer than a short start line.

Peter was SailCanada’s volunteer of the month (January 2016) and volunteer of the year (2016). Peter was also the PRO at the SJ21 North American Championships in 2016.

Thank you Peter for dedication to excellence in race management.

Note: At Glenmore, throwing out an anti-barging mark behind the barge and biasing the pin slightly helps to alleviate congestion around the barge.