The race times for each event vary, with the shortest being the faster windsurfers who race for approximately 30 minutes, up to the keelboats which race for approximately 75 minutes. Before the race, the Race Officials will tell the sailors how many times they must go around the course before finishing the race, this is usually three or four times.

Upwind and Downwind

The race course will be set so that the boats must sail both “upwind” and “downwind”. The first buoy of the course will be “upwind” from the start line. It is impossible to sail directly towards the wind so the boats must zig zag to reach the buoy.  The “downwind” legs are where you will see the 470s, Ynglings, 49ers and Tornados flying their spinnakers.  You can easily identify your favourite teams by looking for the national flags on the spinnakers.

Before a race starts, the boats will sail out to the Race Area to review the conditions, consider tactics for the race start and work out the fastest route to the first buoy.

There is a five minute countdown to the race start.  Sailing around near to the start line, the boats will all be trying to get into the best possible position when the starting gun is fired.

The Rules

Sailing races are controlled by the ISAF Racing Rules of Sailing.  All the athletes have a detailed knowledge of the Rules, what the various sound signals and flags mean and what they must do if they break any of the Rules.

Look out for a yellow, blue or red dot on the mainsail – the dots indicate which boats are in first, second and third place overall at the start of the day.