J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Sail Number

I have noticed that the two most common sail numbers are hull number or a 5 digit number. How is this 5 digit number derived?

We're ordering new sails and of course this is the best time to confirm the sail number.

My TSP is TSP300870679 (J30 - hull 87 - June 1979).
Hull # 87
US Coast Gaurd Hull Identification Number 614825
Rampage sail number 26245 http://noyc.org/images/uk1.jpg

What is recommended?

I am answering my own question.

Here is the link to register an offshore sail number with US Sailing: http://www.ussailing.org/offshore/SailNoSys.asp

Jason King provided this information. Thanks!

Top five reasons to use the hull number:
5. Identifies you more clearly as a one-design
4. Less numbers to paste on the sail
3. Easier to remember since it's shorter
2. Cool especially if it is a low number like 87
1. Free (US Sailing charges a fee)

I thought the low number reason was just a Rhode Island thing. People pay $xxxx to get low number license plates here. I don't know why, just a RI thing.

I like reason 1 the best!

Here was the response from US Sailing:

________________________________________
From: Donna Leary
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2008 1:26 PM
To: David Erwin
Subject: RE: Transfer of Offshore Sail Number 26245

Hi David,

Congratulations on the new boat! Once a sail number is assigned to a boat, it stays with that boat. You as the new owner are entitled to continue using it. I will update the sail number records to show you as the new owner, with the boat named RAMPAGE. No application or fees are necessary, you email is very thorough.

Best of luck with the boat, and your racing. Thank you for your interests.

Regards,
Donna

Donna Leary
Offshore Coordinator
US Sailing
DonnaLeary@USSAILING.ORG
Phone: 401-683-0800 x661
Fax: 401-683-0840
15 Maritime Drive
Post Office Box 1260
Portsmouth, RI 02871 www.ussailing.org




[This message has been edited by David Erwin (edited 04-10-2008).]

As a race committee officer for One Design and PHRF, I deal with duplicate sail numbers when scoring for almost every OD and PHRF race. During a recent Finn regatta, the RC announced with an X-Ray flag, "sail #2 you are over the line". USA 2 and Canada 2 went back to start, while USA 2 was actually over the line.

Another case, say we race J/22, J/24, J/27 and J/30 on 4 separate courses for the Mardi Gras Regatta. All boats are hull number 87. You almost have to enter 87a, 87b, 87c, 87d to track duplicate sail numbers or create 4 separate regattas in the scoring software. There may be a solution to this problem that I haven't discovered.

We are going with the 5 digit US Sailing number since we do lots of PHRF regattas. The 26245 sail number should not be duplicated across the many different types of sail boats.

Price is $0.0


[This message has been edited by David Erwin (edited 04-10-2008).]

That's the reason many regattas provide stick on bow decals. For one-design, it shouldn't be a problem unless somebody is coincidentally using sail numbers from somebody else's hull number who is also racing.

Then you have a special case like Pale Rider sailing in the schizophrenic mode - the bow thinks it's Rhapsody and the stern Pale Rider

Dave -
On the Chesapeake the 5 digit numbers are assigned by PHRF Chesapeake.

Larry

Larry that explains why you have the same sail number as Windseeker. Encounter (Drew Dowling) has the same sail number as Fireball (Butch Joy). In both cases the duplicate numbers are with CB boats.

The source for Chesapeake Bay sail numbers is and has been CBYRA dating to before the birth of PHRF. The mystery of why you have duplicate sail numbers is probably due to one boat owner buying used sails from another and not bothering to change the numbers. My advice is if you sell your sails locally remove at least one number. You'd be surprised how hard it is to get someone to change after the fact.