mustoskiff.com

Just going to throw this 1 out there to see what people think as i think its a cool idea. Classes such as the finn and 49ers have a personal sail number system where at the start of the year people buy a personal sail number which becomes their sail number for the year. Its why you see Ben Ainslie always sailing around in GBR3 when he was in the finn and you instantly knew it was him, even if you didn't sail a finn. I think it could be a cool idea for the class to make things more current and appealing, it also generates some cash for the class that can be put into training during the year.
Shoot me down if it is a stupid idea

Dan

How much would people be expecting to pay for a personal sail number?

I don't know, £35-50, let's say 50 people world wide signed up at £50 then we would have £2500 to put back into the class. I don't know if 50 people is realistic so it would be interesting to see what people think.

I think that would be a good idea; perhaps we can add that into the survey.

Note: the fee you suggest seems quite high; what do other classes charge?

I wonder if people would make a pigs ear of applying the numbers correctly?

Does this require a change to the class rules? I suspect so ...?

So the 49ers is free but they then also have to buy the country flag which is a couple of hundred pounds and we don't want to get into that! Even if it was £25 a year I think that it could raise a fair amount to put back into the class. The 49ers are allowed to choose numbers between 11-999 as the top 10 are reserved for the top 10 in the world champs. I think it would be cool to also see people who are world ranked in the top 10 to have their world ranking as a sail number. I think this is allowed in the rules any way?

We've always had the option that sailors who finish in the top 50 at a Worlds can use their finishing position as their sail number.
In reality nobody has ever taken up that offer.

People might buy a sail number, but you could only use 1-50. The Finn class are re-using sail numbers from old boats that no longer exist.

You could auction each number off to the highest bidder, then pay your £25 per year. The number is yours as long as you continue to pay. If you lapse on your payment then that number goes back to auction again. Use the money to subsidise training or to pay for beer at the Worlds.

Can I rent GBR1 to Dan until Carnac?

paul manning wrote:We've always had the option that sailors who finish in the top 50 at a Worlds can use their finishing position as their sail number.
In reality nobody has ever taken up that offer.

I believe that facility in the rules was dropped as no-one ever bothered.

That means numbers 1 - 50 are now unused and we could rent them out; does anyone really want to rent a sail number?

Nope

in Finns its quite an advantage to have a single digit number.
You get through quite a few sails each year so saving the cost of the extra numbers and time sticking them on.
on the start line your numbers are further back so you can be slightly more over before you get spotted.
sometimes being easily recognisable by competitors can help, that's xxx he is good I will keep out of his way. sometimes not everyone will tack on him
as a mustoskiff sail lasts so long you won't save much on sail numbers £12
£20 for 3 years would make it more attractive
It would be a pain to renumber your sails at the end of the year
if you had moved them closer to the leach then there wouldn't be space to put the correct number on
so you would have to replace the whole set.