Hi John
When Colin has fixed the bug, you should be able to use Sailwave for the format you are describing.
Quite a lot of people still refer to “n races to qualify/count” when turning it round & referring to discards can achieve the same effect
I can see what the Topper committee are trying to achieve - the issue is how to do it in SW
First of all, may I suggest that the SIs have a paragraph which includes something like:
However, no more than one score may be excluded from the final series and only when three or more final-series races have been completed.
I can’t see the SIs on the Topper web site yet so it is possible that Miles & Co can consider this suggestion before publication
When you set up your SW file for the event, input your discard profile for the Qualification & Finals series’ on the assumption that all races will be completed.
In the event that you cannot complete more than 2 races in the Finals series, go back into the discard profile & change it so that you reduce the total number of discards (to the ones that need to count for the Qualifying series) & change the Finals discards to zero.
I have not tested this suggestion but I think it should work (when bug fixed)
A good tip is to always save a backup copy of your regatta file after each race so if you need to go back to the pre-finals stage to change the discard profile, you can do so.
Another tip for big fleets such as the Toppers is when you have entered the race results (presumably through Sail Number Wizard), export a copy of the race results to a csv file
If you need to re-input race results - importing from a csv file takes a few clicks of a mouse - re-entering 300 boats takes a little longer 
Hope this has been of help
Regards
Ralph
···
From: sailwave@yahoogroups.com [mailto:sailwave@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Harvey, John
Sent: 18 June 2008 10:55
To:
sailwave@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [sailwave] Problem with Qualifying/Final series - topper nationals
Sailwave has everything to set it up there already.
It just has a bug in it.
So i assume it has come up before somewhere as well and since there has been discussion around this bug in the past it is not unique to the toppers.
I had nothing to do with that decision though, just trying to help with the scoring.
I did have a discussion with the people who added it and they did justify why it was there.
Basically down to what happens being able to potentially discard all the races in the final series when you are sailing against the top 1/3rd of the fleet.
John
From: sailwave@yahoogroup s.com [mailto:sailwave@yahoogroups.com] ** On Behalf Of** pmbutterfield@msn.com
Sent: 18 June 2008 10:38
To: sailwave@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [sailwave] Problem with Qualifying/Final series - topper nationals
This is so far from the standard that I could not see it ever being incorporated into sailwave.
If the class want such a system, then before they vote for it they should consider the effect on scoring.
sailwave needs to have a discard profile for the finals (this is not working) bit a qualifying number with extra discards going back to the qualifying series is something else.
Mike B
From: Huw Pearce
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 7:22 AM
To: sailwave@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [sailwave] Problem with Qualifying/Final series - topper nationals
Harvey,
This is a known problem and Colin has been looking at it, obviously he is having a few problems resolving as he has not posted a newer version. I am sure he will fix soon.
Kind regards,
Huw
-----Original Message-----
From: sailwave@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:sailwave@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of Harvey, John
Sent: 17 June 2008 22:22
To: sailwave@yahoogroups.com
Subject:
[sailwave] Problem with Qualifying/Final series - topper nationals
Colin
I've been testing things for the topper nationals and there is a bug in Sailwave discard allocation that is causing me a problem.
They have a qualifying series and final series but at least 2 races must count from the final series.
When a race would normally be discarded from the final series but needs to be kept to meet the minimnum required it is kept but a race is not discarded from the qualifying series to replace it.
This still happens in 1.95 build 8.
Attached is a sample set of results that demonstrates the problem.
Topper Nationals is beginning of Aug.
Is there any chance of getting this fixed before then?
Thanks
John