Handicap racing now pointless?

Originally posted by Jon711 I see your point, but feel like I want to disagree. Just can not think of a reason! . Jon

I know the feeling- it's symptomatic of this forum and medium of communication. We often polarise our views, especially once we get a vibe for those folks we think have fundamentally different ones to our own. Yet in reality we're all on the same page and just want fair racing and a bit of a laugh without the guy who wins acting like an arrogant ar**hole or the muppet who looses holding sh*t up with an unnecessary protest hearing.

I've been dinghy sailing for the best part of 30 years now and can honestly say I've only met a small handful of t**sers in that time....   none of which I have ever seen at a mass-handicap event or even in the results if I haven't been there myself.

Edited by rogue - 11 Jan 12 at 2:51pm

Jon

But Mr Plod is being paid out of your taxes (I hope!) - the SJ folks are volunteers.  It is a LOT of work to prepare data for presentation outside of the analysis tools - I can see why they don't open up that can of worms.  I did the same task just for my club recently and at conservative estimate it took me 20+ hours of work (and I have the database and software already to go) - and SJ have a lot more disparate data to deal with.  Now if you were prepared to pay for the data . . . who knows.

On a more positive note - we are (amazing I know) only a couple of years into a significant computerisation of the PY system whether its the official RYA one or collaborative groups like the Great Lakes.  Over the next few years I think this is going to continue to change and should be a whole lot easier for you to access the data you want, and analyse it using the algorithm_du_jour.  Lets just applaud the SJ guys for taking a brave first step and the RYA for wanting to make their system more dynamic and representative.  With the (lack of) money that funds it - I'm amazed that it is organised as it is - try and find a better example elsewhere in the world (or even one that comes close).

Mark

Originally posted by Jon711 If plod stopped you in your car, claiming you were doing 51mph, when you dashboard was showing 50mph, would you ask for evidence... Jon

There corrected it for you. That's the difference of 20 points on your handicap. Get some perspective!

Here you go.... my stats from last years series http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=7546&title=sail-juice-py-stats

I hopes you don't mean me!!! LOL