I have been approached to put some ideas together for a handicapping system within the Challenger Class. The Challenger has been specifically designed for disabled sailors & is a single-handed two sail trimaran with the sailor sitting in the cockpit, requiring minimal body movement.
One of the main issues is that sailors of varying levels of disability compete in the boat, covering physical, learning & terminal illness disabilities and we would like to set up some handicapping system to equalise competitors.
My initial thoughts are to use a Portsmouth Yardstick type handicap, which can then be used to calculate a corrected race time but my difficulty is establishing a number. This should take into account the level of disabilty, which can range from e.g. a lower leg amputee, upper limb amputee, restricted movement due to arthritis, blind/learning difficulty sailors, requiring a “buddy” kneeling on the back of the boat etc etc etc
Before I carry out research to establish levels of disability & then assess the efect on the sailor’s ability to sail the boat, has anyone come across a method which addresses these issues?
Any thoughts or ideas would be most welcome in case I am trying to re-invent the wheel.
Regards
Ralph Tingle
Ogston SC - UK
I have been approached to put some ideas together for a handicapping system within the Challenger
Class. The Challenger has been specifically designed for disabled sailors & is a single-handed two
[snip]
Before I carry out research to establish levels of disability & then assess the efect on the sailor's
ability to sail the boat, has anyone come across a method which addresses these issues?
Any thoughts or ideas would be most welcome in case I am trying to re-invent the wheel.
Probably logical to base your divisions on those used for Paralympics etc where remotely
practical for clarity… As far as working out data is concerned you have a big challenge unless
you have considerable numbers of sailors in each category, which presumably you don't. Its
not widely realised, but in a typical one class fleet race the differences between the
performance of first and last is often in the hundreds of points of (UK 3/4 figure) PY, so its an
immense job trying to remove talent from the equation ubless you have very large numbers. I'd
be tempted to start with very broad categories to establish a general range, then refibe it down
as much with interpolation as from race data,
On the other hand the sheer lack of data means the sailors probably won't have a clue either
so you may have less pressure if you're very lucky, although the capacity for sailors to whinge
about handicaps with no supporting information is IMHO considerable.
Jim C
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On 22 Sep 2002 at 17:56, ExcelRAT@aol.com wrote:
--- In sailwave@y..., ExcelRAT@a... wrote:
I have been approached to put some ideas together for a
handicapping system
within the Challenger Class. The Challenger has been specifically
Ralph,
There is an existing rating system for disabled sailing. Just this
weekend, some of my team members supported the Open Dutch National
Championships for Olympic and Paralympic classes
(www.opendutchsailing.org), which included the 2.4 Class and the
Sonar Class. The rating system includes various methods for
establishing a person's physical impairments into a usable rating
number. If you like, I can do some calling around.
Regards,
Jeroen J.A. Tirion
Regatta Service Europe