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Best Scoring System to Select Champion Boat from multiple Divisions
Can anyone suggest the best and simplest scoring system to select a 'Champion' boat across all Divisions/Fleets in a 20 race series with 4 Divisions, with Division sizes ranging from 10 to 20 boats?
Fun thought experiment. Can you confirm these are different types of boats, and there is no handicapping? If the fleets never race each other, and you have no way to handicap their level of competition, then all you can do is compare the quality of the wins.
I believe you pretty much have three options:
select the boat that was the most dominant in their fleet (basically low-point scoring)
select the boat that was the most dominant in the largest fleet (basically high-point scoring)
create a hybrid system (basically average the two)
The advantages of each (of the top of my head) are:
most obvious... if you bulleted every race, you're going to look dominant
encourages fleet participation (at least in the present day) and maybe reduces incentive to "drive up the score"?
possibly does both? or neither?
What are your goals with this award? Remember that more fun will ultimately drive more participation.
We use high-point scoring (see sailingscuttlebutt.com article) to evaluate the top competitor among multiple fleets and among intermittent fleets over long series. The basic logic of high-point scoring is: the best boat is the one that has beaten the most boats.
We host a Wednesday evening summer series of about 26 races of three fleets having about 10 to 15 boats each, typically totaling about 40 competitors over the season. But our typical race has only about 25 competitors, meaning only about two-thirds of entrants race regularly. Many entrants race intermittently, and very few race in every race.
How would a boat that only raced in 13 races and won every one be ranked against another boat that raced in 20 races, won a few and recorded many seconds and thirds. If the fleet averaged 10 competitors per race, the first boat's high-point score is 130 (13 firsts * 10 boats beaten/race). If the second boat averaged third place in 20 races her series score would be 160 (20 races * 8 boats beaten), and she would rank higher than the other.
Niko, Fun thought experiment. Can you confirm these are different types of boats, and there is no handicapping? If the fleets never race each other, and you have no way to handicap their level of competition, then all you can do is compare the quality of the wins.
Races are Friday Twilight races. Jib and Main only. Sailed under PHS empirical performance handicap (rolling average speed index, golf handicap). This rewards consistently well sailed boats.
Boats are mostly conventional [heavy] keelboats from 20 to 65 ft, with 4 or 5 Flying Tigers and a couple of sportsboats, not very powered up with JAM only. Four divisions based on size/speed, each sailing slightly different courses, depending on their size/speed. Divisions entrants vary from 10 to 20 boats.
Gotcha. Since they all have handicaps, would you consider scoring them based on their adjusted average speed over the night? Basically handicapping the whole fleet against each other. To me, that seems more fair than comparing them based on the place they finish within their fleet of completely different competitors.
Question: if a boat wins all the races in a fleet because, for instance, the crew has a history of high level racing and the other boats are sailed by less experienced sailors, is this better than winning a series by one point in a fleet in which most boats are sailed by expert sailors?
Calculation used for IRC Nationals Ireland Total Score of Division Winner (excluding discards) divided by number of races completed (excluding discards) divided by the number of entrants which sailed at least one race in the series. If there is a tie after this calculation the boat form the larger division shall be declared the winner. If a tie still persists a joint award shall be made (rarely happens)
CBYRA (Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Assoc) uses a modified high point system, which seems to work well.
You can modify the # of throw-outs/"races" completed and min # of races to be qualified for the award. Single-day "distance races" .. over 25nm get bonus points.
The way CBYRA does it, each day of racing is scored as a single event. So a 3 day regatta gets 3 scores for HP.
There are also minimums for the events to count. At least 3 starters for a race to be included and distance of 4nm. If there are multiple races that day, it's the total of the races that exceeds 4nm.
I believe you pretty much have three options:
The advantages of each (of the top of my head) are:
What are your goals with this award? Remember that more fun will ultimately drive more participation.
https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2022/05/19/deep-dive-into-scoring-systems/
I don’t have the formula to hand but I’m sure if you contact the club they would share it with you.
It isn’t a perfect solution but is the benefit of being a formula used in a championship event.
Niko, Fun thought experiment. Can you confirm these are different types of boats, and there is no handicapping? If the fleets never race each other, and you have no way to handicap their level of competition, then all you can do is compare the quality of the wins.
Races are Friday Twilight races. Jib and Main only. Sailed under PHS empirical performance handicap (rolling average speed index, golf handicap). This rewards consistently well sailed boats.
Boats are mostly conventional [heavy] keelboats from 20 to 65 ft, with 4 or 5 Flying Tigers and a couple of sportsboats, not very powered up with JAM only. Four divisions based on size/speed, each sailing slightly different courses, depending on their size/speed. Divisions entrants vary from 10 to 20 boats.
To me, that seems more fair than comparing them based on the place they finish within their fleet of completely different competitors.
Total Score of Division Winner (excluding discards) divided by number of races completed (excluding discards) divided by the number of entrants which sailed at least one race in the series.
If there is a tie after this calculation the boat form the larger division shall be declared the winner. If a tie still persists a joint award shall be made (rarely happens)
You can modify the # of throw-outs/"races" completed and min # of races to be qualified for the award. Single-day "distance races" .. over 25nm get bonus points.
The way CBYRA does it, each day of racing is scored as a single event. So a 3 day regatta gets 3 scores for HP.
There are also minimums for the events to count. At least 3 starters for a race to be included and distance of 4nm. If there are multiple races that day, it's the total of the races that exceeds 4nm.
The first place boat in the Most Competitive Fleet is the Champion. The following is used to determine the Most Competitive Fleet:
5th place corrected time minus the 1st place corrected time.
Example:
Race 1, Non-Spinnaker
1st place corrected time 48:54
5th place corrected time 53:34
53:34 - 48:54 = 4:40
Race 1, Spinnaker A
1st place corrected time 43.22
5th place corrected time 55.20
55.20 – 43.22 = 11:58
Race 1, Spinnaker B
1st place corrected time 42.22
5th place corrected time 55.20
55.20 – 43.22 = 13:58
The Non-Spinnaker fleet is most competitive fleet for Race 1, 4:40 vs 11:58 and 13:58
Multi-race calculation (two fleet, three race example):
Spinnaker A: Race 1 – 4:40, Race 2 - 5:34, Race 3 - 5:15 = 4:40 + 5:34 + 5:15 = 14:53 / 3 = 4:58
Spinnaker B: Race 1 – 11:58, Race 2 - 6:01, Race 3 – 3:21 = 11:58 + 6:01 + 3:21 = 21:20 / 3 = 7:07
Spinnaker A is most competitive for races 1 through 3.
In the above example, the First Place boat in the Spinnaker A Fleet is the overall Champion.
Note - for a fleet to qualify, it must have at least five boats.