Pointless PY Pondering

Originally posted by Chris_H Originally posted by Sussex Lad The PY system is broke for many reasons and there isn't the will to change it.   Of course. We have a declining audience and so the Cost_To_Change vs Benefit is minimal. As for the spurious bar talk about manipulation by top sailors joining clubs who dont submit results - show me the proof, show me the money. Name names. And if you do Show Me, any end result by such an incredible "Lance Armstrong" minority, is really not going to skew the PY to any real degree. It is so preposterous as not to warrant any credibility.  Sorry, H2, but I just dont buy it. It's beer talk

Spot on Rupert 

Originally posted by Rupert At risk of being told I'm "part of the system", or whatever, I don't think the Portsmouth Yardstick is broken at all. Can it deliver fair racing across all types of water in all wind conditions? Of course it can't. Can it get pretty damn close to this over a series of races in varied conditions in one location. Yes. If you decide to sail a Musto Skiff on a 10 acre lake, or a British Moth on the North Sea, will you get the same results as you would if you swapped the boats? No, of course not. But either the club could tweak the yardstick, or common sense on the part of the sailor could prevail. That it's been running in a recognisable format for nigh on 70 years despite people whinging about bandits that other people sail and how harshly "their" boat is treated, suggests to me that it's a pretty fine system.

........and as the pond gets smaller so the contents get more distilled, more refined with fewer nuances.

on the whole what I think you see with the PY moaners is that it is broke, rubbish, etc, without ever providing a suitable alternative that is superior to it. Yes it has its flaws, but a lot of that is down to boats that are binary in their performance, such as the BM and the Contender, etc, which will always skew the numbers. But unless you as a club are prepared to change the numbers to suit your water and also take into account changing them for the wind strength each week, and perhaps between races too, you are always doomed to failure, oh and don't forget to add in the personal handicaping as well. Stop moaning about it and start sailing. I sail a boat that is hard to perform to its PY (or so I'm told), but perhaps its because I'm not as good as those sailing the boats that beat me. Or is it their boats are better suited to the water we sail. I don't know, I don't care, I just enjoy having a race against them and every now and again getting a little closer to them, or god forbid actually beating them. PY racing is all I have and I love sailing against the different boats, it makes it far more interesting than that boring fleet racing.