The rules state that numbers should be legible and I recently saw an IOM with a number which had a zero with a slash through it which made it (to me at least) appear for all the world like an 8. I haven't seen this style of 0 before and wondered if it was class legal.

Hi Gary,

this is a question for your IOM class measurer or Class Secretary.

My opinion is that it should not be compliant with the class rule - the slash is not part of the font and is used to differentiate an O from a 0 where there may be confusion. However the sail number is only numeric, so the slash serves no purpose and as you say, may be confused with an 8

John.

The rules say: (IRSA Supplementary Class Rules - https://radiosailing.org/download/irsa-supplementary-class-rules-2020-4/

C.11 IDENTIFICATION ON SAILS

C.11.1 A boat shall display: (a) her class insignia and (b) a sail number on all sails and (c) national letters on her mainsail as required by C.12.1.

C.11.2 National letters and sail numbers shall be in capital letters and Arabic numerals, clearly legible and of the same colour. The colour shall contrast with the colour of the body of sail. Commercially available typefaces giving the same or better legibility than Helvetica are acceptable. Digital fonts are not acceptable.

I know it's easy to criticise and I'm more aware than most how hard it is to write good rules but the above are a beautiful example of how not to do it. Firstly Google Arabic numerals and see what you get! Secondly, "typefaces giving the same or better legibility than Helvetica ..." is entirely subjective; and thirdly what on earth is a " digital font" in this context?

I recently acquired a vinyl cutter and was trying to find out which variation of the figure four I should use. The Racing Rules of Sailing (G1.2 a (4)) say " a sans serif typeface" so I'm none the wiser.

1 hour ago, John949 said:

and thirdly what on earth is a " digital font" in this context

Maybe means don't do them on a dot matrix printer...