Hi
Before we go any further, I would like to just consider terminology.
Since the very early days when someone asked Colin to score flights in an elimination series (prize goes to Mark Townsend ;-))
we have used the term flights to describe what we have now.
Many of you will be aware that flights is also used in Team and Match racing, with different meanings (although there are many similarities)
I must admit, there are times when I have to stop & think & put my fleet racing head on instead of Match or Team racing & I can see the possibility of even further confusion/misunderstanding occurring when Sailwave gets outside our group of users eg International Race Officers writing SIs.
To try & determine some level of consistency, I had another look at AddC which says
The sailing instructions below provide for dividing a large fleet into smaller fleets for a series of qualifying races, the results of which determine each boats assignment to two or more fleets for the final series
Logic therefore is to follow the lead of ISAF & not cause confusion with the team & match racers
NO! NO! NO! I hear you all calling, as we use the term fleet to mean something different - but do we???
In the days when Mark sent in his request, fleet was a very important term as it enable groups of boats to be scored independently of other groups & was therefore a major scoring mechanism.
Now that we are nearing a new major public release with the fleet scoring tool long consigned to history, and replaced with separate start options, user defined scoring systems & multiple 1sts etc, perhaps now is the right time to think about terminology.
I believe that the right way to go is to follow the rules of our sport so what are the differences between fleet (as we knew it) and flight (as we now use it)?
Both are identities of groups of boats which may race in the same start or separate starts
Contrary to Team & Match Racing, the groups are always competing in the same race number, when they start just differs
Both need the facility for the groups to be scored separately at some point in the series
The new facilities which Colin has developed are really just allowing us to change the group which a boat sails in (I think!)
I agree with Martin that displaying the CURRENT group would be the icing on the cake as it would eliminate the hassle of populating a column for the finals so that they can be scored separately
IS IT REALLY AS SIMPLE AS THAT???
If so, then we should think seriously about going back to the term ‘Fleet’ with ‘Fleet’ re-assignment & ‘Fleet’ seeding tools.
If it is a Traditional (instead of AddC) fleet racing series, the user just ignores the special tool (could it be called the AddC tool?)
PS Colin tends to use App LE to describe this type of racing but Appendix LE is mainly about large, complicated multi-class fleets, which is why I always tend to use AddC (Addendum C of Appendix LE) which deals specifically with this type of racing
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD??
I have written separately to Colin to identify that attempts to become more media friendly with Grand Finals etc, have not been totally successful & there could be changes the the system after ISAF conference in November.
If anyone hears of changes to AddC or whatever, please circulate it through SUG
My own view is that I believe there should be a type of racing with heats, semis & finals with all boats racing on the last day, but that’s for another day ;-))
Regards
Ralph
···
-----Original Message-----
From: Martin Bølgen [mailto:martin@seilforening.no]
Sent: 14 September 2005 12:39
To: sailwave@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [sailwave] FLights
HI!
I do hope that what is clearyfied here, applies to all “Flights Users”.
After this, it looks to me that all flights kind of racing are basicly the same. Because of this, maybe Colin can make it easy to use!
Regards,
Martin
----- Original Message -----
From:
Colin Jenkins
To: sailwave@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2005 11:02 AM
Subject: [sailwave] FLights
` So the way you guys are thinking, in Sailwave a flight is always a
race-specific allocation; i.e. whenever you talk about a competitor’s
flight, there is always an implicit race associated with it (even if it’s
the same for all races).
And when users run Topper Nationwide type events, they assign the same
flight to all races. I can then then remove the "default" flight field stop
confusion. It also stops confusion in start expressions.
Sounds OK to me if that's what users want.
I would probably add a tab to Edit+Competitor called "Flights" (plural) and
give a list for race 1 to N (directly editable) with a note that they can be
set by hand from here, or, by using the flight allocation tool.
Colin
www.sailwave.com
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