NCH handicap for concurrent series

1

Hi
I’m new to sailwave and scoring. We’re using the NHC progressive methodology.

We have at least two series running concurrently, a Wednesday night and Sunday once month. Some boats are in both some in one or the other or mixed.

Should I be retaining the progressive handicap for those boats that sail in both, when they do, if so is there a smart way for SailWave to pick up the latest handicap from the most recent race?

2

Others may be able to say whether Sailwave can automatically pull a progressive NHC handicap across from one series to another but I wouldn’t think that if you run concurrent NHC series it would be fair on a boat that missed a race in one series to have her handicap changed for the next race based on her performance in a separate series. There is also the issue of whether the same class splits are used in both series. At our Club we run several NHC series during the season both consecutive and concurrent and with different class splits depending on the number of entrants in each series.

For better or worse, what we do is to identify the ‘Principal Series’ in the season which in our case are the Spring, Thursday Evening and Autumn series. The ingoing NHC rating in each is the outgoing rating from the previous series, manually entered when the series is set up. These progressive NHC ratings are a boat’s ‘Official’ handicap. For a concurrent non-Principal series we take a boat’s Official handicap at the time she first enters that series, progress that rating through the series then abandon it at the end. So during the season a boat may have different NHC ratings for concurrent series but only one Official handicap from the Principal series and which is then rolled over one year to the next.
Incidentally, if you are using the built-in NHC program in Sailwave there is a small glitch in the RYA algorithms which is more annoying than fundamental. It happens when some boats miss a race and can result in all the outgoing handicaps from that race going up (or down). Competitors then start to question the credibility of the program even though it makes little difference to the overall standings. With the help of Sailwave we’ve developed a template which overcomes this RYA glitch. Please get in touch if it’s an issue that concerns you.

3

Hi Sailena,

This was actually discussed with the RYA during the early days of NHC. The recommendation was that “normally” it is best to keep them separate the reasoning for this is

  • Very often the crew that sail in the Wednesday evening race are not the same as sail on the Sunday
  • The course used for the racing is often different
  • The wind conditions for an evening race are often different than a daytime race with the winds dropping off in the later evenings
    So by keeping them separate the NHC rating reflects the crew and conditions better.

One tip - If you want to carry the ratings from one series to another is

  • Make a copy of the .blw
  • Delete all the races except the race that was due to be the next race
    This race will contain the new ratings and we be used for the ratings in Race 1 of the new series
  • Change the titles etc and use this new file for the new series
    Hope that makes sense

Jon

4

Thanks for taking the time to reply. We sail on a relatively narrow Lake, while weekend races are longer than Wed night the conditions are pretty much the same and generally the same crew.

'll consult the race comittee informing them of your views.

Was thinking that if we decide to amend handicaps with the last race regardless of which series there might be a way to copy handicaps into excel create a csv to update the next race handicaps repeating after each race.

5

How many races would it normally take for the NHC calculations to settle on a good realistic handicap?

Given the base might be miles different from a boats typical performance.

I’m wondering if our series of 6-8 races is enough to settle the handiap calc.

In Statistical Control a run is usually 7 one side of the mean. A realistic hanficap might not be acheived until the last race hence carrying on the handicap for the same series the following year?