The recommended character set for sail numbers is Helvetica or Arial.
With the mandatory 50-55 mm height, 10-15 mm between numbers and 30 mm min between numbers on opposite sides of the sail my number 58 seems to overwhelm a 305 mm sail I don’t think an extra digit would fit if needed.
Is this normal 
Cheers,
Firstfooty
Yep, that’s normal. Unfortunately, legibility of the numbers doesn’t scale with the rest of the boat. Arial and helvetica are almost identical. Either should work. They should be bold to get the thickness too.
The 10-15 mm between digits seems a little wide. 7 mm appears clear but more normal looking. The RRS rules have a wide spacing between numbers too. The Victoria rules have a slightly tighter spacing. I guess big spaces are needed for clarity at longer distances even if they don’t look right up close.
Just don’t use a skinny black marker to make tall, skinny numbers, like on all those cheap cardboard Garage Sale signs! :scared:
Would it be any use to take a look at Traffic signs? They are easily read from far away…
Thanks for the help folks.
I’ve decided to stick with the Arial font but narrow it down a bit - at least I can get a two digit number to fit on a 300 mm sail :rolleyes:
The next problem is getting the numbers to look neat after tracing them thru. with a wide waterproof marker.
Cheers,
Firstfooty
Trace the outlines first with a fine point marker, then fill in the outline with the wider marker. You can also use a superfine marker to sharpen corners, etc.
It only requires a little practice on a piece of scrap first to get the hang of it before attacking your sails.
–Doug
Way back I used to us a template based on the ‘8’ matrix as used by LCD displays etc. to form sail numbers. If such a style is acceptable by the Footy class then I could have such a template laser cut and made available.
Official thoughts?..
Graham
There are sail number templates on the AMYA site.
Print them half size and they will be Footy class legal.