Handicaps and how much difference they make...

were there any sizeable variations in individual races though Jim?  Some club sailors don't give a fig for series results- they are usually won by the best sailor from those elite band of men and women who seem to spend a lot of time at the club!!!

totally agree jim, we are quite aggressive with our handicap changes (every series) and we have succeeded in eliminating most bandit boats. series winners are still the best sailors in the fleet, even though they may have moaned when their handicap was changed they still win.  i like to think it has encouraged them along a bit.

its worth having race by race but over a series those that consistently perform well will come through to win, so 40 seconds in a series doesn't have a huge affect on fleet position, just the overall corrected time within the fleet.

Well some of our races are decided by fractions of a second and five or six seconds makes a big difference.

The Merlin is probably our biggest Bandit and down the lake the Miracles can't be beaten.

Then last wednesday I'm racing my fellow Hythe clubmate Laser v EPS he often beats me over the water in that close confinement, yet Wednesday he ran into fish murderer lines had to stop, unhitch, pull up his plate, drifted downwind and never recovered as I continued to pull clear, it meant nothing, he still beat me by minutes with that ludicrous new Laser handicap gerrymandered as it is by the Sailjuice series.

The problem you er 'experts' with the handicap system have, because you never established a null point around something like the Laser, which remained unchanged, the system is now so screwed up, you don't know where you are.

You should have established a standard 1000 boat around which others move, you have nothing but chaos theory applying with the system being manipulated for the benefit of big inland water and those who would wish to swell their numbers by creating an artificial benefit for the Laser.

It's f**ked.

Edited by iGRF - 24 Aug 13 at 7:11pm

Hi,

Back to the original post re merlin handicaps:-

The original PY of 1040 was based on the boat/mast.sails etc at that date.
Many if the older Merlins will have updated rig (Carbon mast/boom), changed to the larger spinnaker and twin pole system, as well as improvements to the sails and sail controls.

If you have enough data, try using both the 1015 and the 1040 and see what happens.


Colin