Is it compulsory to visit the start kite?

[IanD]

I recently did an event with a punching start, map boxes just after the punch, start kite 100m uphill along a track, and the first control lower than the start.

I ran straight from the map boxes to my first control without going to the start kite. Chatting with the planner afterwards, he said that this he expected some people would do this, and indeed he thought it was the optimum route.

However, another competitor said that visiting the start kite is compulsory, and I should in theory have been disqualified. I've had a quick look through BOF rules and can't find anything to support this view (in the absence of a taped route to the start kite).

Have I missed something in the rules?

[Becks]

Pretty sure it's compulsory under IOF rules but that BOF don't say anything about it - could easily be proved wrong though!

[HOCOLITE]

Unless there is a punch on a start kite how could you regulate this and uphold disqualifications?

I thought it was just for information and obviously very important for juniors.

[Kitch]

There have been disqualifications in the past for not visiting the start kite, though I think one specific incident involved ducking the tapes.

Planning a leg where the optimum route is not via the start kite doesn't strike me as very clever.

[Snail]

Don't think it's in the IOF rules either - they say that if necessary there should be a marked route from the timed start to the point where orienteering begins - but not that you have to follow it.

Ideally the planner / organiser will arrange things so that going via the start kite is the optimal route, but occasionally this is impractical.

There's certainly an argument it should be compulsory. Fairness issue unless everyone knows. Potential safety issues arising prior to the start kite may not be considered. At relays in particular the changeover layout sometimes means that the optimal route is not via the start, which could get interesting if people start cutting through the spectators.

[seabird]

The start kite is there to give the confidence to runners that they know where they are. Partiuclarly important for Juniors, which is why it is usually on or by a line feature.

Clearly many orienteers have either prior knowledge of the area or the map reading skills to be able to determine where they are without the need to visit the start kite. This gives them an immediate (unfair)advantage over those who need to visit the start kite to locate themselves.

The planner has a responsibility here to ensure that the optimum route to all first controls passes the start kite.

This will be helped if the run out to the start kite is as short as possible.

[Stodgetta]

In Italy at the 5 day this summer, it was often 200m plus to the start kite, but the route was taped and there were marshalls making sure that no-one short-cutted. It was frustrating, as the optimum route from the start box was not necessarily past the start control.
The start box was also marked on the map, so you knew where you were immediately you picked up your map and how far it was to the start flag. In essence it was a 200m taped route that was not included in the course distance.
It was fun watching people peg it those 200m+ to the start flag then stopping for ages to look at their map, though!

[EddieH]

Its always struck me as one of the silliest rules because it is utterly unenforcable. I had understood it to be compulsory, probably stemming from an O Ringen when the organisers made it VERY clear it was compulsory.

I remember a JK relay where a large group of us went at right angles to the route to the kite, saving some 500m, and a British relay where I got my map and went backwards through the last control instead of to the start kite - but these were in the old days before it was made clear.

Often in the UK the kite is in a place where the planner obviously doesn't intend one to visit it (e.g. BOC in the NE when it was behind the start!)

The rule SHOULD be absolutely clear, and in my view it should be compulsory IF taped, otherwise not. In WMOC Norway it was excellent as the routes to no 1 were almost back on oneself, but the compulsory route had high fencing preventing any confusion. (It was amazing how many people were unable to turn round at the end despite some 300m to read the map.)

One final problem is start officials inventing their own rules after the start when they don't like people taking optimum routes backwards through the start. Bad planning maybe but it is not for a start official to start inventing rules in the middle of a competition. This may sound obscure but it happens remarkably frequently.

[EddieH]

One other point shows that unintended mistakes can always happen. When controlling a majorish event with 2 starts I went to one to see that it was set up okay, but was about 1 minute late arriving at the other start only to find that the start officials had completely misread the map and set the whole thing up about 250m short. I was just about in time to get the start kite and a route to it sorted out, but not to move the prestart. Unfortunately the first leg on some course became very short an easy for those that identified where they were enabling people to run the leg at about 2 minutes/k.

[redkite]

Not aware of any rules that kite must be visited

If there were, what is meant by visited? Do you have to touch it? get within 1m or 100m.

Unless a control, so can prove been there, cannot be enforced unless taped and set out in the final details etc.

Surely kite is simply there so you know where you are on the map

[Neil M35]

7.2.13 Competitors shall follow in its entirety any compulsory route, including that leading from
the start or to the finish of the course.

Which doesn't really clarify the situation. Does taping the route make it compulsory? How close do you have to be to the tapes?

[Snail]

But BOF Rules also quote (App B):

3.1.8 Any part of the course where the competitor is obliged to follow a compulsory route
shall be clearly and precisely indicated on the map by a dashed line.

[Gross]

When controlling a majorish event with 2 starts I went to one to see that it was set up okay, but was about 1 minute late arriving at the other start only to find that the start officials had completely misread the map and set the whole thing up about 250m short. I was just about in time to get the start kite and a route to it sorted out, but not to move the prestart. Unfortunately the first leg on some course became very short an easy for those that identified where they were enabling people to run the leg at about 2 minutes/k.

Poor standard of controlling Eddie... should have allowed enough time:) But at least you admit the error... some wouldn't:)

[johnloguk]

I've never thought it was compulsory to visit the start kite, unless there was a taped route to it with specific instructions to follow them. However, I can count the number of times I haven't visited it on the fingers of one hand.

I was a helper at the CSC in Pillar Woods a couple of years ago and most people on the longer courses didn't visit the start kite as the optimum route was at 90 degrees to it. The kite was there to guide juniors to a path I think, the rest of us just shot straight off through one of the most open and runnable forests imaginable.

[HOCOLITE]

There was controversy about this a few years back at the Welsh and many considered that those who didn't visit the kite should be disq. Can't comment further as did not have the legs concerned.
Can remember a WCH event YBT I think where the best route to #1 was back through the start. Not ideal but it saved crossing heather or similar rough open so was definitely quicker.