Quick PY Question

I think you need a million samples per class, but yes, the only way you will ever approach that is with a nationwide data set over several years. But doesn't the RYA scheme encourage local adjustment? And this is what I don't understand - individual clubs have far too small a sample rate for adjustments to be meaningful.
You guys are certainly bringing in long overdue improvements and you get my full gratitude for that, but I think adjustments can not reliably be made in isolation at local level.

I know when i had my 300 on the right day on the right course my handicap could go down as far as 880 so it would seem we all can have our day i always thought i could sail the 300 off about 950 and still do ok and thats on the open sea with big waves and all that even when the wind got to twenty knots plus i still did ok.But i found on a dead run a phantom would be quicker any other point of sailing the 300 would just fly

Originally posted by Rockhopper I know when i had my 300 on the right day on the right course my handicap could go down as far as 880 so it would seem we all can have our day i always thought i could sail the 300 off about 950 and still do ok and thats on the open sea with big waves and all that even when the wind got to twenty knots plus i still did ok.But i found on a dead run a phantom would be quicker any other point of sailing the 300 would just fly

Edited by rb_stretch - 12 Jan 13 at 10:02am

GRF, I think there are at least three members of said committee on this thread. But that's not to say we're going to agree with you just because you keep telling us. Heck, we most likley won't even agree with each other although we will probably reach a consensus we can live with.

The challenge with handicapping dinghies is the variability of the data.
- The slowest class is about 1/3 of the speed round the course of the fastest class
- The slowest competitors, outside of complete beginner status, are about 20% slower then the fastest.
- Even excluding the Moths, some classes vary about 20% slower from the main run of dinghies in their performance in varying conditions. In my days in the Cherubs, for instance, we used to reckon we were as fast as Flying Dutchmen in ideal conditions, and slower than Fireflies when it was really horrible for us.

There are and can be no "known standards". The standard boat approach to handicapping has been long abandoned because it just doesn't work. Similarly measurement based processes won't work for dinghies because the variables are so large. Multihulls are, fortunately for them, a simpler challenge in this regard.

When dealing with such complex data the only thing that can help you is statistics, and statistics are what is used. With modern data processing of results the amount of data available for the statistics is going to greatly increase, and this will mean our confidence in the results can increase...

Edited by JimC - 12 Jan 13 at 12:11pm

The other thing of course is that once clubs e.g. HISC, shift a lot of their numbers, it makes it very hard to process the returns coherently.
If HISC data says the RS400 should be say 940, I'm not convinced that is properly re-scaled to account for the fact that it's racing against say Merlins on 980 or whatever. But some days it might be racing against Fevas on a number higher then their RYA PY.

Certainly the powerpoint that was floating around last year gave me no confidence in this.
Hence I'm not exactly going to put any effort into getting a return put in from either of my clubs.