GBR Sail Numbers visible while Crusing the E Med - a good idea or not?

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Borden

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We have been given a lightly used Hood main sail made for a Jeanneau 45.1 which, with with a bit of modification, will fit our Moody 47 very nicely. This 'new' sail carries the registration number for the Jeanneau which I intend to have removed. The question is do I ask the sailmaker in Turkey (Hood agent) to replace it with our own GBR sail number or just leave it blank?
We are presently in Didim marina in Turkey and will be cruising the Med for the foreseeable.
I'd appreciate the views and collective wisdom of forumites on whether it's wise to display a GBR sail number or not.

Colin
 
As you have to fly an ensign anyway I cant see that it makes much difference other than you may be identified
from a further distance.
 
Borden said:
We have been given a lightly used Hood main sail made for a Jeanneau 45.1 which, with with a bit of modification, will fit our Moody 47 very nicely. This 'new' sail carries the registration number for the Jeanneau which I intend to have removed. The question is do I ask the sailmaker in Turkey (Hood agent) to replace it with our own GBR sail number or just leave it blank?
We are presently in Didim marina in Turkey and will be cruising the Med for the foreseeable.
I'd appreciate the views and collective wisdom of forumites on whether it's wise to display a GBR sail number or not.

Colin
Click to expand...

Sail numbers are not country specific normally. They indicate the build number of a yacht and hence its approximate age however there
is no indication of which country the owner belongs to. Ie Westerly Logo and CR2105 indicates a not so elderly Westerly Centaur but it
could be sailing under any flag!
 
Bilgediver said:
Sail numbers are not country specific normally. They indicate the build number of a yacht and hence its approximate age however there
is no indication of which country the owner belongs to. Ie Westerly Logo and CR2105 indicates a not so elderly Westerly Centaur but it
could be sailing under any flag!
Click to expand...

I believe Borden is talking about an RYA-issued sail number rather than manufacturer-issued ones such as the Westerly ones. These begin with the prefix "GBR".

Actually I considered the exact same thing when buying my new sails. I wasn't concerned about the eastern med, but we're planning on going further afield and you never know who our adorable politicians are going to start a fight with next.

I opted for the number without the "GBR" prefix with the thought that in the event that we did any racing overseen by a body who cared about such things, I could get some stick-on letters for the prefix. In retrospect I regret not just opting for my westerly sail number. Did moody issue sail numbers?
 
I cruised worldwide over a period of 20 years without ever having trouble as a result of showing a GBR number.

It used to be possible to track down a fair bit of information about the yacht and owner from the GBR number, but that is no longer possible, or at least, easy.
 
It certainly won't be a problem on the northern shore of the Med, I've never been down to the southern shore but it seems to be more volatile down there, so perhaps a GBR sail number might not be such a good idea there?
 
I do not have a GBR, my number commences with a K. In 10 years in the Med nobody has ever taken any notice whatsoever of my sail number. The mainsail is invariably down when we enter a port so there is little reason why any official might see it. I suppose that if a patrol boat was to approach us on the water he might be interested but it has yet to happen.
 
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