The Black Flag - what does it mean to a sailor?

Sailors dread the Black Flag. When they see the Black Flag flying from the race committee boat before the start, it might as well be the skull and cross bones. When the blag flag is hoisted, no boat is permitted to cross the start line at any time in the final 60 seconds before the start. “Abandon hope all ye who enter here…”

The aim of the black flag is for the race committee to discourage an over-eager fleet from crossing the start line too soon. In sailing the start is a massive part of the race because if you can gain a few centimetres of forward advantage compared with your rivals, you can start giving them bad air off the back draft from your sails. A few centimetres of advantage at the start can quickly expand into tens and even hundreds of metres of advantage over the course of a race. 

It’s the absolute opposite of cycling where the stragglers in a peloton can benefit from riding in the slipstream of the riders pushing hard at the front. In sailing, the rich almost invariably end up getting richer, which is why it’s vital to push the start as hard as you dare.

After two attempts to get Race 4 of the Women’s Skiff competition under way, it was only on the third attempt that the fleet finally got under way when the black flag had been hoisted.

Even that was not sufficient to deter five of the 20 boats, however. There was a gaggle of 49erFX teams who just couldn’t resist the desire to push off early, although they would pay a heavy price. The teams from Germany, Norway, Canada, Great Britain and Brazil – yes, the two-time and reigning Olympic Champions from Brazil – all started too soon. 

However, teams are not alerted to the fact that they’ve contravened the black flag until they have completed the two-lap race along with the rest of the fleet. So they don’t fully get to find out their fate until they cross the finish line and are given the bad news by their coaches.

It’s a tough gig, but the black flag is to be respected at all times. Of the transgressors in Race 4, the Canadian sisters – Georgia and Antonia Lewin Lafrance – at least made amends for their BFD disqualification in the best way possible. By taking the winner’s gun across the finish line of Race 5.

written by Andy Rice