Datchet Flyer

Average lapping will always throw up the odd anomaly, but but so will not running average laps. If the wind varies through a race some boats will always be advantaged. If the wind is decreasing the boats that finish early will be advantaged, if the wind is increasing the boats that finish late will be.

So there is no overall advantage for slower of faster boats: it just depends on how the conditions change in the particular race.

Whilst average lapping in variable conditions will throw up the odd obvious anomaly between boats of similar speeds of the type you've noted, not running average laps in a variable wind will throw up far greater, but subtler anomalies which will advantage and disadvantage far more boats and to a far greater extent because the finishes will be over a much longer timescale.

Lets say that for every minute after the first finisher there's a 1% advantage, the handicap range is 600-1200, and its a 15 minute lap for the fastest boats and 4 laps. If you don't average lap the 1200 handicap boat has a 60% advantage.
Now lets average lap. Equally skilled PY 600, 800 and 1200 boats all finish nominally at the same time after 4,3 and 2 laps respectively. No advantage.
Equally skilled PY 799 boats do 4 laps, and finish after ~80 mins, so a 20% advantage, just the same as if it were not average lapped.
Equally skilled PY 1199 boats do 3 laps and finish after ~90 mins, so a 30% advantage, as opposed to ~60% if not average lapped.
So overall the results are much fairer, but there are discontinuities. That's why its better not to have rigid divisions, so, as in your example, not everyone lucks out all the time: instead its scattered right through all the competitors.
Of course it could be a 1% disadvantage for every minute after the first finisher, or a 1% advantage for the 1st 10 minutes then dropping off again, it just depends how the wind changes.

Like everything else with sailing there are a lot of compromises to be made in race management, and its probably healthy to ring the changes. The average lapping also brings middle speed boats into play, instead of having one extreme or the other always favoured.

Average lapping is at its best when you can run very short races with many laps. The more laps the better the averages will be. However if you have a hundred boats circulating round a 10 minute lap over 90 minutes then the race team will have a continuous stream of boats going through and by the end some boats will have lapped others three or 4 times, individual boats of the same class may have lapped each other, especially in capsize conditions, and the work load on the RC is phenomenal and there's much more risk of lap counting errors.

What Datchet have done with their dual pursuit race, which is really rather clever, is to set things up so that wind variations are halved. Because the divisions are varied between pursuit and handicap races, that makes things even out more.

What might be an interesting thing to try, if one could manage to explain it to the crews and get all the right boats starting on the right starts, might be a 4 race series in which on day one there is a single fleet split handicap race followed by a single fleet split pursuit, and then on day two have two splits, again with a handicap and a pursuit. You could even run the races on separate courses. Then you'd give the two fleet races double points, and the three fleet races treble points, and let any race be discarded. I don't think I'd volunteer to be PRO and do the briefing though.




Edited by JimC - 19 Dec 13 at 6:25am

Thank you Jim, you put it much better than I could have.

The idea from other posts that changes of wind strength are a sign of poor race management is rather odd.

One thing we could get away from in handicap racing that might make things fairer is the idea that the lead boat finishes first. As far as I can see, it makes no difference to the calcs. That way, it would be easier to have 2 closely matched boats of the same class do the same number of laps, even when the lead boat is between them, as you either let them all do another lap, and start finishing just after, or you finish the first of the matched boats befoe you finish the lead boat.

Originally posted by Rupert One thing we could get away from in handicap racing that might make things fairer is the idea that the lead boat finishes first. As far as I can see, it makes no difference to the calcs.

For sure. At our club we often finish in front of the leading Laser. We have few boats between Lasers and RS200s, so there's quite often a convenient gap to get the S flag up in, and the first fast fleet will probably be finishing alongside the trailing Lasers and Solos.

I think I'd go as far as saying that if you insist on hitting the S in front of the fastest boat you aren't doing average lapping properly.

Given a homogenous fleet though its going to be next to impossible to find a point where no class has leading boats split.

Edited by JimC - 19 Dec 13 at 9:14am

Originally posted by JimC Originally posted by yellowwelly I still think there's something in the mindset of quite a few sailors who would want to see the fastest sailed boat across the line first. The biggest challenge in trying a radical format is explaining it to the sailors. It seems to be an ingrained human thing that, no matter how much they may whinge and rail about how unfair the results of an existing system are, any new system that changes those results is automatically wrong. You can see exactly the same thing in the pages of the Mail and the Guardian, both of whose readers seem equally conservative (small c) and resistant to new ideas, any time there are proposals for a change in the benefits system...

Originally posted by maxibuddah There's no point in coming up with anything too complicated, most of our clubs membership who do race officer can't work out the results in a simple py race, let alone anything like you are describing. And don't suggest using sailwave to them, that's devil talk that is.