A statement in the current Laser Handbook - "The handicap numbers work best on races around 100 minutes long." (referring to Portsmouth numbers)
Is this correct? Our races are generally 30 - 50 minutes.
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regards,
Malcolm Osborne
Rondevlei, South Africa
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The only thing in the UK Portsmouth Yardstick system that pays any attention to race length is that it discards results from very short races (under 20mins) as being so dominated by the start as to be unreliable. As it's an observed performance system if there is an ideal race length it would be the average, but that data isn't available.
It's amazing how often you see folk make up their own theories about how PYS works. There's rarely much in it. It's probably fair to say that the longer the race the less the poor starter is disadvantaged, but it's going to be pretty marginal compared to the disadvantages of starting badly full stop!
JimC
The handicap system is based on the basis that the boat you “expected to win” wins. In other words, the boat that has the most skilled sailor in it.
So as Colin says some value in excluding very short races where a fluffed start might have a big influence in SETTING the handicap. That doesn’t mean its not valid for a 15minute race to use it. If you had 20 lasers all identical racing over 15minutes and 2 guys mess up their start they are likely to be near the back. If you have 10 lasers and 10 solos racing and one of each mess up their start, they are also likely to be at the back on handicap…
HOWEVER, the 100minutes is a LONG dinghy race in my opinion. So for dinghy PYs while you’ve probably removed some of the dodgy start data you have now introduced an endurance/stamina element. So those top level sailors are likely to be at the front even with bad starts etc as the less capable sailor probably is fatiguing as they approach 2 hours of flat out dinghy racing. So it slightly depends what you want PY to do - place the sailor you could predict would win at the front…? Make it a long race (but did you need to race - or should you just guess the results) OR place the sailor who showed the most skills in the race at the front… in which case they need to get across the line on time, and preferably not be a race of endurance unless that is the actual purpose of the race!