A key part to understanding my sport is knowing what the flags mean.
There are a few flags which I come across more than often, and each of them apply to a different part of the day. Most flags correspond to a letter and that can make them easier to remember.
The first one I usually see is my class-flag. I sail in the Laser Radial class and so we have a green flag with the laser symbol over the top.
Underneath is the launch flag. Now you’d think that one would be easy, L for launch right? Nope. For some reason this one is the blue and yellow striped D-flag.
Once we’re actually out at the race area, there’s usually the well-known AP flag to signal a postponement in the beginning of racing while the committee set the course.
The white and red stripes can be seen for miles and it’s usually greeted with complaints from those who just want to get the day started.
The start sequence flags are the most important. At five minutes to the start, the class flag goes up with a sound signal. A minute later, it’s joined by the U-Flag which looks exactly like the English flag, to warn us that there’s four minutes to go.
At four minutes to go though we sometimes get a Black-flag instead, but that’s a story for another time.
There’s a brief silence until it’s taken down with a whistle at one minute to go, with the class flag joining it at the start of the race.
After that, it’s rare to see anymore flags. Sometimes if it’s a strange weather kind of day, we’ll see a C-flag displayed on a ‘Charlie board’ to show us that the course markers have been moved in the middle of a race.
If the wind dies mid-race, we can be lucky enough to see the blue and white S-flag signalling a shortened course.
If you’re very unlucky and you take too long to finish a race, you might be shown the W (whiskey) flag and asked to return to the start area without completing your race.
The final flag you might have the misfortune to see is the yellow flag as it’s waved at you from a jury boat, signalling that you have to take a 720° penalty turn.
Team GBRn't 