Forum: Race Officers

Team Racing Swiss League Tournament Pairing Creator

Mark Townsend
Nationality: United States
Certifications:
  • International Race Officer
  • International Umpire
  • International Judge
In team racing events with a large number of teams ‘swiss league’ provides for better competition by scheduling teams with similar win loss records to race each other. The format does not require every team to sail every other team to determine a winner. However, a specialize computer program or spreadsheet is required to record the previous rounds results and generate the next rounds schedule.
 
  1. Has anyone run a team racing event using a ‘swiss league’ format?
  2. What software or spreadsheet did you use to manage the results and the schedule?  
Created: 20-May-22 01:37

Comments

Nick Hutton
Nationality: Australia
Certifications:
  • International Race Officer
0
Hello Mark. The program of choice for Swiss League is contained in a package called Sail100 written by a British gent by the name of Bob McPherson. Unfortunately it is some time since we have heard from Bob. Some old copies of Sail100 with Swiss League still exist on the laptops of keen team racing scorers but I’m not sure how portable they are. 

As I said it originated in the UK but we have used it in AUS for maybe 20 years and it is a great program. Some other contributors to this forum may have a copy to share. Bob always provided it free of charge so sharing should be ok. 
Created: 20-May-22 02:39
P
Peter Gerard
Nationality: United States
Certifications:
  • National Judge
  • Regional Race Officer
0
Check the US Sailing web site - scoring programs. Sail 100 is one of the programs listed
Created: 20-May-22 03:18
Nick Hutton
Nationality: Australia
Certifications:
  • International Race Officer
0
Thanks Peter. Is there still a live link? It would be great if there is. 
Created: 20-May-22 03:25
Ross Adams
Nationality: Australia
0
Hi,
In Australian schools' events they use the Sail100 Excel spreadsheet mentioned by Nick. 
I think it was downloaded from here https://sites.google.com/site/uktra1/Running-Events but i cant see it, although its name may have changed.
Have a look on the site and perhaps contact them and see.
Failing that contact me and i can arrange for a copy to be sent to you.
As it happens i started writing a system  2 years ago that i didnt finished but during my recent isolation have dusted it off again and i hope to finish it soon.
.... just found Bob's email (it may also me 20 yrs old), i will email him a link to this blog and see if he can help.
Ross.

Created: 20-May-22 03:29
P
Peter Gerard
Nationality: United States
Certifications:
  • National Judge
  • Regional Race Officer
0
I do not know. The listing appears current, but I have not checked the links. That being said, there must be someone at US Sailing that may know more about it.  (ussailing.org)
Created: 20-May-22 03:32
Craig Daniels
Nationality: United States
Certifications:
  • International Judge
  • National Umpire
  • Regional Race Officer
0
You can find it on the internet wayback machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20170921091309/http://www.sail100.org/saild.htm

The purple button "Results Program" will download the file.

It's not obvious how to use it.
Created: 20-May-22 03:47
Ross Adams
Nationality: Australia
0
Here are the instructions
Sail100.pdf 73.4 KB

I agree with Craig that it is not obvious how to use it but to be fair to Bob it was written a long time ago and no doubt was best of breed in its day. And as i said it is still used in Australia.

Whoops, i dont think that has worked... can i link a PDF that others can download?
Created: 20-May-22 03:52
Craig Daniels
Nationality: United States
Certifications:
  • International Judge
  • National Umpire
  • Regional Race Officer
0
I skipped over something I should have said.  The website no longer exists.  You can only find it via the Internet Archive using the link I posted above.  I did my best to find the last version posted before it disappeared.
Created: 20-May-22 03:57
Thierry Poirey
Nationality: France
Certifications:
  • National Judge
  • International Umpire
0
Arnaud Mante an young International Judge and Umpire have written a fantastic program for those who want to organize team racing with any kind of numbers of sailors and boats available. You must see that and don't hesitate to share.
https://sailcup.com/result/help/index.html
Created: 20-May-22 07:08
Paul Robson
Nationality: United Kingdom
Certifications:
  • Club Race Officer
  • Club Judge
  • National Umpire
0
Take a look at http://events.ksail.co.uk Keith and Jo have an excel program with pre built schedules you can use and then send back to get them uploaded. I know they were testing a Swiss-League version in addition to the round robin and HLS leagues which is what it was originally designed to run.
They have also recently customised their system to run a national schools on-line virtual team racing event for me.
Created: 20-May-22 07:20
Luke Tupper
Nationality: Australia
Certifications:
  • National Judge
  • National Umpire
0
Hi Mark,

Have a chat to John Pratt he uses Sail100 for teams racing events in the east. He was looking to get someone to update it to newer version of excel. 


Created: 20-May-22 09:51
Nigel Vick
Nationality: United Kingdom
Certifications:
  • National Judge
  • National Umpire
0
I would suggest an e-mail to the Wilson Trophy  info@wksc.org.uk  They have assisted the NSSA for many years with their SH Team Racing event here in the UK. A word of warning - you need to have someone who is thoroughly familiar with the programme, as any snafu can really impact your event. As Paul says Keith at Ksail will also be very helpful. keith@ksail.co.uk. Suppose that since I run the UKTRA site I should take a look at that section again.
Created: 20-May-22 13:04
Keith Sammons
Nationality: United Kingdom
Certifications:
  • National Race Officer
0
Hi Everyone. Hopefully I can add some value to this conversation with a summary from the UK.

There are ways and means of running Sail100 even though Bob is no longer actively supporting it. It was built on an Excel VBA system. I do have a copy of it which I'm more than happy to share should it be needed. I built an additional add-on for the British Universities Sailing Association event to more easily present the output online. Please see http://events.ksail.co.uk/2019/BUSAFinals/ for the 2019 event. In the UK, there are only a few events that use the Swiss League; the Wilson Trophy, BUSA Finals and the NSSA Single Handed Team Racing.

Running a Swiss League has advantages and disadvantages. It does well to promote quick peer-to-peer racing and creates an exciting event. The legendary "bounce" effect does mean that for fairness Quarter Finals should be run before going to Semi Finals. Event level success depends on many factors, some venues are more appropriate than others, there are venues where a Swiss League simply can't work. There are a range of technology and communication requirements both afloat and ashore.

I'm more than happy to discuss Team Racing Scheduling options and ideas; do drop me an email on keith@ksail.co.uk.

Additional resources for team racing are available via https://www.ksail.co.uk/ or through the kSail Events Portal at http://events.ksail.co.uk/.
Created: 20-May-22 13:49
P
Louis Mayo
Certifications:
  • Club Race Officer
  • National Umpire
  • National Judge
0
If anyone comes across a Mac compatible or web based Swiss league programme, please let me know :) 
Created: 20-May-27 11:05
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