What is a sailing gate start ?

Question

What is a sailing gate start ?

Answer 1

Its a sort of moving start line.

A flag is laid and a nominated boat (path finder) starts sailing to windward from it on port tack. The committee boat then follows it and the other competitors start on starboard tack from behind the committee boat.

Trick is to know when to start.....go early if the path finder boat is slower than you or there is a big advantage being on starboard tack or late if the path finder is fast and/or there is a port tack advantage.

It was developed at the Firefly National Championships in the 1950's I think as there were so many entries, a static start line would have been over a mile long.

Answer 2

You got me...