The PY system

Originally posted by Medway Maniac Regardless of whether it's fair, any change - even by one point - is like putting a stick into an ants nest so far as members' reactions are concerned.  Just not worth souring the atmosphere for.

I agree with AlexM. We also have applied a percentage of the difference depending on the confidence factor.
What has happened is that it is the ability levels of sailors in differing boats that is evening up results and therefore an average sailor in a boat that has had the Py dropped is now racing against an average sailor in a boat that has had an uplift in Py. Much closer racing throughout the handicap fleet!
The better sailors are still winning and the poorest are still loosing!
Yes, when there is only 1 boat in a class racing then it is effectivly a personal handicap, and this is where the issues with a very small number of members has occured. There may be an arguement for leaving the Py as is without a number of boats in a class.
However the confidence factor will always be low without numbers racing and any adjustment will be small relative to the Py the individual is sailing their boat to.
It is certainly working for us so far.
Redders

I think what we are doing is the fairest way. E.g. the majority of the 100 results are mine so it could be close to a personal h'cap. However only applying a % of the change when the c.f is so low i'm not going to worry about 3 PY points! It'll take an age for the system to get to a very high c.f. with a single boat so im not losing any sleep over it

Yes, so in the case of the 100 (0.1 c.f) We'd only use 20% of the change (996-981= 15*20% -3 PY = 993 . So nothing really.

Once you get to about 0.5 c.f. the pdf file gets a stamp of authority from RYA

Alex

Edited by AlexM - 18 Mar 13 at 12:58pm

Medway Maniac
Here's an extract of the kinds of data required to get high c.f. (If the data is stable)


What we do when we've only got small c.f. is apply a % of the change. Here's the table i use

CF     %
0.0     0% use RYA number
0.1     20%
0.2     40%
0.3     60%
0.4     80%
0.5     100%

Alex


Edited by AlexM - 18 Mar 13 at 12:00pm

In the case of a boat which should have a spinnaker, but in a particular example doesn't (ie, there is no rigging even for it) you could say that to get fair racing, the handicap should be adjusted to allow for this. In effect, the boat has become a different class. I guess an example of this would be an original Fireball. No trap, no spinnaker. Be daft to send it off the same PY, wouldn't it? And by extension, a more modern Fireball converted to how they once were, too. You would then start the "new boat" process to get a fair rating.

On the other hand, just because someone is crap at using a spinnaker, it shouldn't be a reason for change.