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:

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.

I would suggest the Percentage of Perfection score.
https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2022/05/19/deep-dive-into-scoring-systems/

If it's not the same as the Percentage of Perfection system, take a look at the system used for the IRC European Championships.

For the RORC UK IRC Nationals they use a formula based on the number of entries in the various classes and the number of races run etc. 

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. 

Thanks Everybody for the responses.

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.

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) 

Gordon, having lived in France you already know the answer : "It depends..."

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.   

A scoring procedure to find the Champion of multi fleet, handicap racing follows.

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.

Hi, 

The RORC formula that I have used in Malaysia and the Middle East IRC Championships that seems to give a overall winner that people respect is:

23.2 In addition to class prizes, a prize for t h e overall IRC Middle East Champion 2024 may b e
awarded to the winner of the IRC 1, 2 or 3 classes. This will be awarded to the yacht with the lowes
resultant score  when the following formula is applied:
(A yacht's series score / (Number of races counted in series score)) divided by (Number of entries in class + (Total number of entries in all classes  / 2))

Niko,

You suggested:

"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."

I like your suggestion and I plan to run some tests vs the method I have been using around the Most Competitive Fleet.

Thank you.