Icon Class Association

(BT have just repaired our phone/web connection so here we go .. a little late)

Should builders be given carte blanche to set yardsticks for their own products? ...

Absolutely Not - We don't really want to have anything to do with yardstick setting !  Surprised ? 

We are damned if the speed of our craft is ‘exaggerated to promote sales ’ on one hand and damned if we err the other way and place a ‘bandit’ estimate on the craft .. again the casual assumption of some … to promote sales of course.   I have stated in the past and repeat it now … we don’t really want to get involved.

So then why do builders get involved at all then ?   Because nobody ‘official’ wants to do it either.  It is perhaps a potential hot potato for ‘them’ as well of course for all sorts of reasons.

When we race boats to find out how boats compare at the latter stages of development we state our honest beliefs at that time as do the majority of other suppliers.   We can only state our belief of where we think the long term average will end up compared to other classes and for the average crew.  If the class comparisons to hand are not sailed to their potential (or above it) or they are subject to changes themselves over time any relative measure can change.    

For the record we hoped Icon would be as fast as a decent Phantom in lighter winds inland and maybe as fast as a Blaze in a ‘Blaze breeze’ on the sea.     

Most involved in racing dinghy development and early testing  generally do know what they are doing and it should  hardly be a surprise if they can also ‘beat’ any long term handicap.  But in the end a whole 50% of any emerging new class fleet should be able to do exactly the same … and the other 50% will not be able to do so.  Handicaps are just averages …   

There is no easy way under the traditional PN system to build reliable handicap numbers quickly… it is best long winded and liable to flip/flop around with small sample sizes – the ‘low confidence ’ statement.    The current ‘experimental official’ number for Icon of 969 is not impossible in atypical circumstances and on rare occasion for any crew   .. It is just extremely unlikely as any sort of reliable average number for average crews but real life is like that.  Numerical returns for Icon are very low and you would find that just a couple of boats make up something 70+%  of the individual race results.  Small numbers and many clubs not putting in returns at all are the obvious causes. 

The Sailjuice/GL system is different.  These numbers can vary considerably from the ’traditional’ ones and in our experience are producing very good ‘level’ racing.  Their numbers compare large numbers of different classes on the same courses at the same time each winter.  Pitting arguably better racers from many classes directly against each other seems to produce quite different handicap numbers for a number of classes.   In fact you could even think a quiet revolution has already occurred when the clear majority of the ‘major’ handicap events from the QMSC ‘Bloody Mary’ down now use factored numbers.     Now they are adding a summer series of events you will soon be able to race under the GL handicap system year round if you wished to do so.

This is attractive to smaller classes particularly the new ones who obviously need good racing as quickly as possible.  The obvious side benefit is that the GL handicap numbers should prove more reliable .. and critically establish them much more quickly.  The methodology is not perfect either but goes a considerable way to netting out the ‘complex’ effects of crew ability and location as the assumptions on fleet composition and quality are quite different .  The Laser for example is much more competitive under the GL system with its adjusted number but has hardly become any sort of bandit.

Anyway we don’t expect too much sympathy from anyone  .... and particularly on this forum !    Put simply a well sailed Icon will not, of course, beat well sailed competitive Merlins, Fireballs and what have you on the vast majority of occasions.     The front of those fleets rarely ever make major mistakes….  In Icon we can only challenge these classes at all if we get it near 100% right (ie not necessarily that often) and they drop a few bricks here and there around the course!    

Handicap racing has evolved a long long way since the days when ‘all the good crews’ raced solely within their fleets and ‘handicap’ was for that occasional ‘menagerie’ largely social racing for the ‘other craft’ from  the back of the local dinghy compound.   This form of racing has grown enormously in the last few decades but arguably with the exception of the GL approach the handicap system is still essentially the same as it always was..   It does do what is says on the can – it measures local club results mainly and intentionally does not attempt to tackle ‘complex’ factors.   That is the strength of the approach .... and equally its weakness.

We are loaning several Icons out this season and attending a few ‘invitations’ to clubs – if you want us to appear with a few boats at your favorite club just ask us or better still the Icon CA.   If we can then fit you to the loan programme you could be lent a boat for a month so you can get a broader view of the boat .   Go get some local results in an Icon, have some fun, and give us poor souls a break !   

Mike L.

PS – Might be good to organize another BT line failure – you can get so much more done !