Is it possible to reduce the variation in a handicap so it does not exceed a certain amount? I.E. it can bounce between a min and max value? almost like a dampening effect on the handicap?
We had a scenario where we have series running through the year and roll the handicap over from series to another series… on one race there was one boat that (A Storm on the Mersey), which ran and finished but it skewed the handicap so much it has affected them the whole year?
Most progressive rating systems require a minimum of 3 boats to have completed a race for that race to be used in calculating a new rating. If the minimum number of boats do not compete the rating remains unchanged for everyone, usually.
If you use an external spreadsheet rating file like - RYA NHC, Irish Sailing ECHO or World Sailing Empirical Handicap System (recently made available by request) - you can see how they work. If they do not work for your requirement you could always modify one of them or even write your own.
sorry for the late reply… i am using the following: -
discard of 0,0,0,0,1,2,2
Rating is IRC (RORC (Musto)
Race scoring “low point systems” is WS Appendix A standard low point, round to 0.1 RRS 2025
Series Scoring is both options selected "the most firsts, second etcs… and who had the best recent scores…
This works fine in that the more races won the more the handicap increases etc… for the next race in a series etc and so on and so forth
The question is, can we create a boundary in the amount this rating can swing… a tolerance if you like (± 1-2)…
We had a peculiar scenario on a stormy day with a high tide (Mersey 8 knots) and one boat got an astonishing time which effected the series. When i rolled over the rating from one series into a new series they have a very high handicap because of one race… which put them at a serious disadvantage for the rest of the year… This only happened because of a freak winds and spring tide on a river with one of the fastest tides in the world…
a work around was to discard the IRC rating for that series but i wonder if we can dampen the + and - of the handicap to account for these freaks of nature?
You don’t make it clear if you are using NHC Internal or External or ECHO as a progressive handicap - You say you are IRC but IRC in itself is not a progressive handicap system. so it won’t change ratings. Certainly if you are using NHC External you can do anything you wish to do.
Perhaps give me a call on +44 7530 112233 and we can discuss it or use WhatsApp with that number if it helps
Thank you for information from which I do not know how you are using a progressive rating system, like RYA NHC or Irish Sailing ECHO, as IRC (RORC Musto) is not one.
Most progressive rating systems do have a mechanism for coping with extreme rating changes. The following screen capture shows this for an RYA NHC external spreadsheets:
I cannot remember what the internal RYA NHC is equal to in terms of external spreadsheet, perhaps Jon will see this reply and clarify. Internal mode RYA NHC can have parameters adjusted by using a .INI file, which has been documented in another thread in this forum.
If you share your Sailwave file I can then perhaps understand
Happy Christmas and New Year.
Kind regards,
Huw
The internal calculations are identical to the external as default. You can modify some of the parameters for the internal as described in another thread. With the external you can do almost anything you wish
