PY Numbers (again)

Originally posted by Lukepiewalker I'm amazed that this was all rekicked off by a set of results where the notable thing was that only about half the entries completed both races...

.........just shows how boring the forum is at the moment...........

At present our club, like many others I guess, see the PY system as a dark art, choose not to meddle and race using published handicaps without amendment.

I believe we submit a return to RYA, but of course it doesn't tell them anything new. Given that we are unlikely to get proactive with handicapping anytime soon, would it be more helpful if we did not make a return at all?

I understand that this very suggestion was made to someone at RYA and they didn't exactly disagree........

The Moo, no, please definitely make sure your club is making the returns. I'm very suprised someone from the RYA even hinted that it would be better if you didnt send your returns in.

If your returns prove that the handicaps as published are working well for your club it doesnt matter, please dont think that that information is useless. All the data that is returned as such is valuable to working out a national average. The PY returns data needs as much input from small clubs just as much as the big ones.

If I remember correctly you sail at MWYC dont you? If you guys need any help figuring handicap stuff out let me know, I'm just up the road from you and would gladly help you out. I could even help you get setup and using the new RYA electronic returns system to make it all a doddle. Do you guys use sailwave for scoring at the moment? Also do you use RYA PY's for your races or are you using a personal handicap system like we used to at Warwick?

When submitting the annual PY returns how do clubs calculate what to put in the column which asks what the club feels a particular class PY should have been (ie the column labelled "proposed").  We don;t use sailwave or anything similar, so returns we make in the column are a bit subjective. I wonder if the RYA feel that any return is better than none?

The Moo, Late starter and Doug H, if your clubs are using sailwave (which is dead easy to use, and is free) you can apply to the RYA for a password for the PY returns website. Once you have input your race data, you can then ask sailwave to upload the results to the RYA website. The site then calculates all the information as you see on the returns sheet for you automatically. You need to do no further paperwork and wouldnt need to sbmit the paper return to the RYA. It really is a simple site to use, although as per most computer programs you need to learn its "quirks" at first.

I really would recommend scoring using sailwave (makes publishing to your website a doddl too) and uploading to the PY returns website on a race by race basis which really does take minutes and after a while soon builds up into a very useable spreadsheet showing what the "suggested" handicaps might be for all the classes racing at your club. Useful if you do ever decide to tinker with the published numbers to tailor them to your local conditions (as the RYA recommend clubs do but as has been mentioned rarely happens due to political reasons).

Again the offer still stands if anyone at MWSC needs help/advice should you contemplate using sailwave I'd be happy to assist.


Edited by chrisg