Race results
Understanding your race results
Starters' and Timekeepers' Report (yyyymmddStatTime.txt)
On the left side you'll see the 'line' placings and times. On the right you'll see the handicap times and placings. Once you have finished one race, you receive a handicap - beginners have a high handicap, from 1.1 to about 1.3, while experienced sailors may have 0.9 to 1.0. This handicap is divided into your yardstick-corrected line time to give a handicap time. Handicapping works to make races very even - anyone can win.
The right side also shows handicap points. If you win on handicap, you get about 100 points (details are in the Sailing Instructions). If you are close behind the winner, you still get nearly 100 points, and anyone finishing within about 4 minutes of the winner gets more than 50 points. If you are second, even if you are a long way behind the winner, you get at least 75 points. So there are lots of ways to get good points. You also get points for club duties such as helping on the platform and in powerboats; so you don't miss out if you do a duty. These points contribute to a handicap total over the season (the Race Report also shows your current total).
There are columns on the Race Report for line points and total as well. These are for the Championship Race days during the season. On those days, points are awarded for the yardstick-corrected line placings. The fastest sailors get the most line points and these points decide the Club Champion - by class and overall.
Times are recorded by sail number only, so it's important that you sign on correctly. Signing on/off is also an important safety procedure. And according to the Racing Rules of Sailing, failure to sign on/off results in disqualification.
Please check the results once they're posted. Occasionally errors occur - if you spot a mistake, let us know!
Handicap Points Summary (yyyymmddHPoints.txt)
This shows your total points from placings after handicaps are added, as well as your current handicap, plus details of both.
Championship Points Summary (yyyymmddCPoints.txt)
This shows your points from each championship race and total points.
FAQ
How does the handicapping system work?
When you sail your first race, you receive a handicap based on your performance in that race. As you take part in more races, your handicap is adjusted to be an average over the last few races (the middle 5 of the past 7 results - discarding the best and worst). Therefore your handicap will change as your performance (and that of other boats) improves.
Each time you win on handicap, you will receive an additional small "win" penalty of 0.005 – this prevents one or two boats from monopolising the handicap wins.
Remember that it is the skipper who is handicapped. If you share skippering your boat with someone else, you must each establish a handicap, and you separately accumulate handicap points. If you move to another boat in the same class, you take your handicap and points with you.
You need to finish one race to establish a handicap. Your finishing time on that race, compared with the others, determines your initial handicap. As you sail more in that class, the system learns more about your ability and your handicap becomes more accurate. In the first few races, it may bounce around a bit.
Who gets the points - skipper or crew?
The skipper. Sorry crew! It's typical of sailing systems, and quite unfair on the crew. A good crew will help with sail trim and boat balance, keep a lookout for other boats with right of way, watch for better wind and current, and generally help with race tactics. But for now, it's the skipper who gets the points, so make sure you sign on correctly.
What if I change to another boat?
The handicap is attached to the skipper - it's a measure of your skill in sailing that type of boat. So, if you change to another boat of the same class, your handicap moves with you. If you move to another class, where we don't know how you compare with the other sailors in that class, you need to establish a new handicap for that class. If you return to your old class, your old handicap awaits you.
Since 2012, we have grouped classes into divisions. Within those divisions, Australian Sailing yardsticks are used to correct raw line times, giving theoretically equal results despite different boats. So now you only need to establish another handicap if you move from one division to the other.
What is the Ydstk and Corr?
The "Ydstk" column in the race results refers to yardstick. We assume that all boats of a single class are roughly equal (not strictly true - a newer or better maintained boat may perform better than supposedly identical boats). But if boats of different classes sail together, how can we allow for their different performance?
The Yardstick is a number which indicates how fast a particular class of boat is expected to sail in average conditions. A list of yardsticks, compiled from a lot of race results, is published by Australian Sailing. The current list says a Laser has a yardstick of 114, while a Mirror has a yardstick of 143. This means that a Laser is expected to sail about 25% faster than a Mirror. But a Pacer has a yardstick of 127.5, only 12% faster than a Mirror, and we have decided to sail them together in the same division. So will the Pacer will always win? No. To make it fair, the Pacer's time should be multiplied by 1.12 to give a time equivalent to a Mirror sailed with the same skill.
This is shown by the Ydstk column, which shows the yardsticks of the two different boats, and the "Corr" or Corrected time column which gives the time after dividing by the yardsticks (scaled by 100). (So in fact, both Pacer and Mirror times are corrected, but the combined effect is the required 12%.)
Over the years we have tinkered with yardsticks to recognise perceived inequities - the yardsticks are largely derived from typical bay sailing. Lately we have refrained from doing this, and it seems to be working fairly well. In addition, individual class reports show results for just Lasers, Impulses, etc.
What is the Handicap Points Summary report for?
The points you gain from your handicap place in each race (plus club duty points) go towards the handicap total over the season. But the Race Report shows only the points scored, and current totals, for those who sailed that day.
The Handicap Points Summary report shows everyone who has gained any handicap points in the class this season. For each skipper, it shows:
- Their current handicap points total
- How that total is derived from 'performance' (race placings and times) and club duties
- Their average performance points per race sailed
- Their current handicap
- How that handicap is made up of 'performance' (race times) and win penalties
What's a Win Penalty?
The basic idea of a handicapping system is to make everyone 'equal'.
First we apply yardstick corrections so that sailing a faster type of boat doesn't make any difference. Then we add on handicaps, so that being a better sailor on average doesn't make any difference. This means that on a given day, whoever tries a little harder, or is a bit more strategic, has the best chance of a win or place and the big points.
However, at some stage it was decided that this could leave some sailors with little reward for a lot of hard trying (in the past trophies were awarded for each race, not on the season total). So, to make it a bit unequal (!), each time someone wins on handicap they are given a 'win penalty' of 0.005, subtracted from their real (performance) handicap. This equates to about 1/80 of the total handicap range.
[For long-time members, you will remember the win penalty being 3 minutes; that was when we had additive (not multiplicative) handicaps, and fewer, longer races, with proportionally larger handicaps. When we moved to multiple short races on a day, it was reduced to 1 minute. The multiplier variation of 0.005 is chosen to be roughly equivalent and, being a multiplier, it automatically adjusts between long and short races.]
It's questionable how relevant this is in the current order, but tradition dies hard. So the final column of the Handicap Points Summary report shows how your handicap is made up of the performance component (i.e. how well you have sailed) and how much is penalty. Comparing the penalty values also shows how well the system (or plain good luck) has spread the wins around.