Pointless PY Pondering

Originally posted by iGRF Since when do formulas designed for leadmining apply to us? I've only been at this lark for what 10-15yrs now, and there's been no significant change in my time all I've seen is continued deterioration of the sport I enjoy which to remind you is small performance racing sailboats in mainly confined waters. And how you think you're going to design something that works better than what we currently have (foiling excepted)around that relatively crude formula I don't know, and hell if you do then great if it's easy enough to sail I'll buy one, but what we really don't need is more of the same ole same ole, because it's taking us nowhere fast.

In a sense, they don't. Most of the rules only had to deal with displacement craft, so didn't have the added complexity of planing.

And a boat designed to win doesn't have to be nice to sail, or fast. It just has to be making the most of distorting the rule set to make it faster than the spreadsheet thinks it ought to be.

But I'm obviously just blindly following the status quo and have never looked into any of this, so ignore me and carry on with your wonder handicap project. I'll look on with amazement.

In my time sailing . I have sailed class racing , py handicap, py pursuits, personal handicaps based on time sailed ( people cheat , when they win they win by seconds, when they are having a bad race they are last by minutes) and personal handicap based on race positions . 

Edited by Grumpycat - 26 Nov 20 at 10:19pm

In the early days handicapping would have been based on time on distance, as the Yanks still prefer (seconds per mile) rather than time on time as we do it now. If I remember correctly it was around the 50s that the UK worked out that time on time is fairer as well as the start of the PY system based on judgment of apparent performance (Langstone tables?).

Edited by KazRob - 26 Nov 20 at 9:09pm

Originally posted by iGRF Since when do formulas designed for leadmining apply to us?

Umm, because they underline how deluded it is to think that someone could just magically knock up a 'fair' handicap system on the cheap...

There are lots of potential reasons the sport is in decline, but I don't think that the PY system features anywhere near the top of that list. Or if it is a factor then it is just that it facilitates the atomisation of the sport.

Since when do formulas designed for leadmining apply to us?

I've only been at this lark for what 10-15yrs now, and there's been no significant change in my time all I've seen is continued deterioration of the sport I enjoy which to remind you is small performance racing sailboats in mainly confined waters.

And how you think you're going to design something that works better than what we currently have (foiling excepted)around that relatively crude formula I don't know, and hell if you do then great if it's easy enough to sail I'll buy one, but what we really don't need is more of the same ole same ole, because it's taking us nowhere fast.


Edited by iGRF - 26 Nov 20 at 7:53pm