What do all those sound and flag signals mean? When sailboats race they get a running start. An imaginary line is established, between two points, each of which may be a buoy, a marker or flag on a committee boat, or a marker or flag on shore. The ends of the line will be announced at the skippers meeting before the race. A sequence of signals is started, after which boats are allowed to cross the line. In order to make sure that all boats are on the same time schedule, the Race Committee representative for the event will give signals counting down to the starting signal. These signals may be sounds (wistle or horn) and/or flags. In case both flags and sounds are used, the flags prevail. For sound signals the beginning of the first signal indicates the correct time. (i.e. with "3 long" the beginning of the first blast indicates 3-minutes). The Race Committee will usually make some quick short sound signals approximately 5 seconds before the sequence starts in order to gain your attention. TASC generally uses the signals described below:
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