We are looking to use Sailwave for the Hyannis Yacht Club (US)regatta. It works for all our classes, but we don’t know how to set it up to score our 420 line. We get up to 150 420s sailing in our regatta. We give each boat a color code (blue, green, red, yellow) and then race them in 2 color groups. First race, blue and green will race against each other and red and yellow will race against each other. Second race, blue and red race, and green and yellow race. We call the color groups fleets.
For scoring, we enter the order of finish of all the boats regardless of color. The system we use now, assigns the position
for the Blue/Green boats (1,2,3,4, etc.) and the Red/Yellow boats (1,2,3,4, etc. ). I’m not sure how to set this up in Sailwave.
As a test, I have loaded competitors into Sailwave and assigned the color codes to the Fleet field. Not sure if that is the right field or how to get the system to score the color groups as if they were different races. Any help would be appreciated.
It is not the Fleet column you need to use.You want to use the Flight functionality, in your case you are not reassigning competitors to a different colour group after each day of racing. Each boat will be in same colour group aka flight for all races.
You will need to open Setup | User interface to select a couple of options:
Nonstandard race ties
Split starts allowing multiple 1sts, 2nds etc
For each race you will need to set up two starts by clicking the appropriate race column header and selecting Edit Race:
Race 1 start 1 will have Blue and Green boats selected
Race 1 start 2 will have Red and Yellow boats selected
R2 S1 will have Blue and Yellow boats selected
R2 S2 will have Green and Red boats selected
R3 S1 will have Blue and Red boats selected
R3 S2 will have Green and Yellow boats selected
Then repeat for R4, R5 & R6
More information is in the User Guide and Reference Manual available for download from the Sailwave web site.
I am willing to setup a sample to show you how I would set things up. Just ask if you would like more help.
Kind regards,
Huw
There is a section on page 50 of the Sailwave Users guide that covers setting up and running flights. We have used it to score several World championship and it works well. The setup for flights is complex, the scoring is easy.
Make sure you test your setup prior before the event. I usually try and find the results from the previous year and make sure I can replicate the results. When testing make sure you have races that include OCS, BFD, RDG, DSQ etc. Some key questions. 1) Are boats assigned to new flights at the end of each day? 2) How many scores can be excluded from the qualifying series and from the final series? 3) How are scores carried over from the qualifying series to the final series?
If your setup is wrong, you can dig a deep hole for yourself!
Thanks everyone for your help. I will reload the color codes into the Flight field and make the recommended changes to the to the setup. Then I’ll test, test, test.
Answers to questions:
The boats are assigned a color and they keep that color.
We user OCS, BFD, RDG, DSQ for these races
I send along the NOR and SI when I find them. Normally we have them on our website, but we just changed to a new site and we didn’t have a regatta last year (we all know why). I’ll have to do some research.
Unusual when using multiple flights not to reassign boats to new flights after each day of racing. This evens out any seeding issues that might occur.
1.FORMAT OF RACING
1.1. The regatta will consist of a qualifying series and a final series.
1.2. For the qualifying series boats will be assigned to groups Yellow, Blue, Red, Green, etc., of, as nearly as possible, equal size and ability. Initial assignments will be made by a seeding committee appointed by the race committee. Those assignments will be posted before 0930 on the day it will take effect.
1.3. (a) In the qualifying series boats will be reassigned to flights after each day of racing. If all flights have completed the same number of races, boats will be reassigned on the basis of their ranks in the series. If all flights have not completed the same number of races, the series scores for reassignment will be calculated for those races, numbered in order of completion, completed by all flights. Reassignments will be made as follows: …
Using colour groups and not reassigning after each day of racing is not unusual here in the UK or elsewhere. It predates flight reassignment as a way of managing the number of starters on a start line. I think it was initially used by Optimist Class as the numbers attending open meetings increased and there was need to reduce numbers on a start line especially at clubs with more restricted waters for setting start line length.
It is also easier for young inexperienced competitors to understand because they know they are in the same colour group for the whole regatta.
Answer to some of the questions re: our HYC Regatta races for 420s:
The boats retain their color designation throughout the regatta
there are 11 races over 3 days. Each race consists of two groups
A group is a pairing of 2 color codes.
The race has staggered start e.g., Blue/Red, then Yellow/Green
Race results are reported to the scorers in order of finish.
The current software assigns finish position based on color group, with two 1st place, two 2nd place etc.
We DO NOT seed the boats before the races. We DO NOT have Qualifying or Final races.
The competitors can throw out every 6th race.
I’ll be loading the competitors with the color codes loaded into the Flight field.
I will setup using Non-standard Race Ties and Split Starts.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
