Kangaroo start

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In sailing, the kangaroo start is a special starting procedure for yardstick regattas.

Based on the prevailing wind conditions, the laid out course and the yardstick numbers of the ships involved , an average sailing time is calculated for each of these ships.

From a boat with a yardstick number of 100 - the so-called zero boat - the time additions or time reductions are then determined for each boat by which the start time differs from the zero boat. The mathematically slowest boat starts first, then the second slowest and so on until the mathematically fastest boat starts.

The procedure itself is very unsafe when the wind conditions change, since the start times are calculated before the race according to an instantaneous value that cannot be changed after the start of the first ship. The advantage of this starting procedure is that, contrary to the other yardstick regattas, the placements do not have to be calculated after the finish, but the first at the finish is the winner.

The name Kangaroo Start was coined by Günther Ahlers , the former chief surveyor of the German Sailing Association . Ahlers lived in Australia for around ten years from 1968 . In the so-called Wednesday regattas that are common almost everywhere in the world - in the USA it is called the Wednesday Night Race or casually the Beer Can Race - the Australians were already using the starting procedure in which the slowest boat starts first.

After his return to Germany, Ahlers introduced this starting system on the Hamburg regatta courses. With allusion to his time in Australia, the system quickly became known as "the system of the kangaroo", which has meanwhile become established on the German regatta courses and is displayed with a green flag with a kangaroo at the start.

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