BASIC SCORING AND HANDICAPPING

Scoring and handicapping sailing regattas and series is not particularly difficult or time consuming unless one chooses to reinvent the process on the fly. In the interest of less re-invention and more relaxation, SAIL has assembled and published this basic system. Here, you will find the instructions, formulas, and forms, and most of the handicaps to score any event.

We have three pages devoted to these subjects:

This page, an introduction,
Scoring Procedures: Step by step on how to score races.
Handicapping:

Scoring

Scoring is the system by which it's determined who won the aggregate of 2 or more races given the ranking of boats in each race. It is a function of the race committee.

Essential reading material for scoring is Appendix A of the Racing Rules of Sailing. This appendix covers points awarded for finish position, tie breakers, discards, and possible redress awards. It includes two systems, “Low Point” and “Bonus Point”

The “Low Point” system is a straight-line system that awards points based on the “number of boats that beat you”.
The “Bonus Point” system is a curved line system that rewards the top six positions with progressively greater point differentials.

In both systems, boats are ranked by from low to high; lower is better. These work best for short series where most competitors race all races, such as weekend regattas.

Appendix A also discusses scoring of series longer than a regatta; specifically, A9 differentiates between boats that “come to the starting area” and those that do not; and scores those groups differently. For shorter series or regattas, A4.2 applies -- unless modified by the sailing instructions -- to give all boats that did not start and finish a race the number of entries plus one point.

Long Series Systems

For a long series, in which it may be expected that a sizable fraction of competitors will not participate in all races, a "high point" system simplifies scoring. These include:

These first two high-point systems are documented in the Race Management Handbook and Yacht Race Scoring by Bemis, both available from US SAILING.

[Scoring Procedure]

The page on scoring procedures reviews basic how-to-do-it techniques in a step-by-step manner.

Computerized Scoring:

Today, computer programs have been developed to take much of the drudgery out of scoring and reduce errors. Results can be calculated & printed in a fraction of the time required for paper, pencil, & a calculator. For a review of various programs available, visit www.ussailing.org.

Sailwave -- is a popular sailing scoring program for Windows. It is used internationally at all levels of the sport; from club racing to regional/world championships. Flexible publishing tools allow results to be targeted to web browsers, web-sites and e-mail destinations. Functionality is based on the current ISAF RRS Appendix A with additional multi-fleet and other capabilities. Emphasis is on ease-of-use. Although primarily used at sailing events, Sailwave is also used for windsurfing, ice yachting, land yachting and model yachting.
SailWave can be downloaded from www.sailwave.com. SAIL conducts an annual seminar on use of Sailwave in the Spring. See "Education".

Computer scoring comments

When using a computerized scoring program, it is recommended to re-write the data as little as possible before entering it into the computer. Each copying introduces more chance of error.

We have not found automatic recording of finish times (by pressing a button on the computer) to work out well in practice. A pencil-and-paper record is recommended as a back-up.

Pencil-and-paper scoring:

Making scoring calculations on paper has fallen out of favor with the availability of cheap & powerful computers and good software. We no longer recommend this technique if it can be avoided. It is time-consuming and subject to error.

We do, however, recommend that a written, paper record of start and finish times be made and kept.

Handicapping

This is a brief introduction. More about handicapping is explained on the "Handicapping" page.

Almost all handicapping that takes place within SAIL is done by either the US SAILING Portsmouth Yardstick system or the Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF) system, using SAIL PHRF (or locally assigned*) handicaps.

Portsmouth Yardstick

The Portsmouth Yardstick is a nationwide handicapping system published and maintained by US SAILING. It contains handicaps for almost all production dinghies, keelboats, multi-hulls, and sailboards. Handicaps are statistically derived from the results of thousands of boats racing in hundreds of regattas in various conditions over the course of the previous year.

Portsmouth “numbers” yield factors which, when multiplied by elapsed time, produces corrected time. The Portsmouth numbers for each boat vary depending upon wind speed to provide equitable racing. More about Portsmouth here.

PHRF

The Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF) system provides locally-administered handicaps for self-righting boats and that are adapted to the conditions prevalent in the locale. Each PHRF fleet has a locally elected or appointed handicapping organization responsible for administration, handicap determination and appeals.

The fundamental PHRF “number”, in seconds per mile, and the length of the course yield a time allowance, which is then applied to elapsed time to produce corrected time. There is only one handicap for all conditions. (SAIL’s PHRF Fleet will be discussed in detail later.)

PHRF Time Correction Factors (TCF) are Time on Time factors produced by applying one of several formulas which differ in their “center” (where TCF=1) and proportionality.