The Footy rule says that we have to have a hull number marked on the hull as the boat’s registered number. In the normal case this acts as the sail number.
I the UK we have just launched a scheme for ‘personalised’, saiol number, which apply to the owner, not the boat. This recognises the reality that owners tend to have several boats and swap between them rather more often than they change their knickers.
Fne - the sail number is there so the PRO and his Myrmidons can do their job. It is actually easier (at least in principle) for them to sort documentation etc. out beforehand on a personalised basis: who is going to turn up is much less changeable than what is going to turn up.
So what do we use the hull numbers for? Well we use hem to make AMYA bean counters happy (my beanies can’t count:devil3:). We do use them to show how Great and Important the Footy Class Is. Otherwise zilch. I presume that the reason why model yachts traditionally have these things is to make sure that the boat and the measurement certificate presented at an event match. But we don’t have measurement certificates.
So who needs a hull number or indeed a boat number? Jiust register Footy sailors.
A mere passing bomb-shell.
:devil3::devil3::graduate::zbeer::zbeer:
PS A further thought. This is actually the system used for registering motor vehicles in Belgium It works very well, although people’s (unjust) view of Belgium as a slightly comic opera country means that nobody abroad takes any notice.
Being the builder of lots of footys I would like to see a ‘skipper’ number too. It would help so much in making rigs interchageable between hulls. I would like to see everyone have such a number though rather than any complicated mixed scheme. I would suggest that those of us with miltiple registrations be given our lowest number as our skipper number that would be a place to start. Then those with only one registered boat would simply keep the number they have thus freeing up many numbers in between without any established skipper having to be given a new number.
Your sail number is the first hull registration number you get, and you put that on all your sails, but when you register for a regatta, they look inside the hull to get the boat’s registration number.
That’s my general plan. Offer skippers one of their existing numbers as their sail number. We’ll still track hulls but those numbers can be manufacturer based or sail+counter for home built, as long as it’s unique. I’m trying to think of a downside.
Are there skippers that have boats for loan that might need additional numbers? They could add a digit like we do in regatta conflicts. Other ideas?
I’m not changing the rules again anytime soon so skippers still only need to display 2 digits. I’m trying to decide if I like 33 or 141. 33 is a nice low number but 1s and 4s are easier to draw.:rolleyes:
Hulls are tracked to count them, track trends in hull design and use, and it meets the requirement of D.1. Here in the US, it also aids in registering boats for general AMYA requirements (bylaws 6.3).
What’s the big deal? I’ve been handing out prefered numbers for skippers that want to appear to have a sail number, i.e. 10, 210, 610, 710). It’s not hard.
So we tell the AMYA that we’e stoppin registering boats - just people. The genius of the box ule is that measurement is so simple that measurement is almost instantaneous. So we don’t need (or have) measurement certificates. Given that, why carry around all the mediaeval paraphinalia that goes with them.
On the other hand, for the truly dedicated bean counters out there, I have many option: kidney, haricot, black-eye, lima and human!
:zbeer::zbeer::graduate::devil3:
Go ahead tell 'em. I’ll make sure to petition the MYA to take over issuing of personal sail numbers. Alistair Law seems to hold that position. It would save you a lot of trouble.
The Americans want it cheap to make
The Russians want to maintain it with a hammer
The Swedes want it safe
The French want it ingenious
The Germans want it efficient.
The English want it simple
The Japanese want it reliable
And the Italians……
……… want it to be painted bright red and go Vroooom, vroooom, vroooom!
Sounds a pretty solid idea John whether you specify the low number or allow people to choose. Would you suggest they then give back the other numbers which will keep the overall numbers lower and in the 3 digit range longer. So long as the AMYA have some sort of number to go with the $7 I assume thay will be happy?
For drawing numbers John, buy a stencil from Michaels or Hobby Lobby, that’s what I use. Helvetica 2" seems to fit the rules and looks good.
