**
Thank you for your very detailed reply, and I am afraid that my lack of
familiarity with Sailwave might explain some of the terminology issues.
1. My main reason for using an Alias is so that I can take the results
for Class 1 ( a fleet as you describe them in Sailwave definitions) and
Class 2 and combine them for a 3rd Combined Class. It seems from your reply
that, despite having a different start time, an Alias will compare like for
like, so for each of Class 2 and Class 1 it will compare elapsed time and
corrected time, and produce a result as if both Class 1 and Class 2 had
sailed together starting at the same time? Your first assumption of my use
of a Combined Class is correct. Our members own a mixed bag of cruisers,
ranging in size from 18' to 40', including a few sports boats, and the
handicap very much reflects the abilities of the skipper and crews. Some
boats race with just a husband and wife team, neither on the right side of
70 (viewed as a 50 yr old!) and so the boat's NHC Standard handicap is
meaningless for them.
My next step is to rein put all the 2013 results into Sailwave and see how
it works and how versatile it is. I will be redoing races for which the
results are already known, so will have a good comparison as to how sail
wave works. I will then try to work out the progressive element of those
handicap changes and see how Sailwave works that all out. It probably is
best to try it out with some data, now that I have your helpful inputs, and
see how I get on – expect cries for help in due course!! It will at least
keep the creative juices flowing during the off season.
Is there a good explanation of how the NHC handicaps change, based on the
RYA methodology, so that I can at least see how sensitive the system is?
Thanks again
Patrick
From: Art Engel <artengel123@earthlink.net>
Reply-To: <sailwave@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Wednesday 16 October 2013 00:17
To: <sailwave@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: [sailwave] Setting up Sailwave for Cruiser Racing with 2
Classes (Class 1 and 2) but with a Combined Class as well.
1. Aliases allow you to change the handicap/rating system used or to
score against different competitors. The start and finish times remain
the same (in the aliased competitors - you can edit the start time in
Edit>Edit race but it won't be used although it will be displayed; you
can edit the finish time in Edit result but it will be reset to the
finish time for the un-aliased competitor when you score or rescore).
You can change the course distance and it will be used. And, of course,
you can change the individual handicap/rating or even the
handicap/rating system used.
2. Not sure what you mean by "we give results both by class and for the
combined fleet." "By class" is obvious; "for the combined fleet" is
ambiguous. If you mean you take the corrected time for each boat and
compare them then aliases can do that easily (you would enter boats in
two classes and then for each boat create an alias and enter all of the
aliased boats in the combined class). If you mean you take the position
or the points earned by each boat (with one of the sophisticated high
point systems) and compare them then I don't believe Sailwave can do that.
For aliases, you have to turn them on under Setup|User Interface. When
you do that you can easily create aliases for all boats under Edit|New
Competitor Aliasing. You could then assign all aliased boats to a new
class under Tools|Set competitor field - use "Alias<>0" to select only
the aliased competitors; you can use multiple criteria if you want to
change only the aliased competitors from a particular class/fleet.
If you are new to Sailwave you might find "class" and "fleet" confusing.
I know I did for the first 6-12 months of use. Sailwave uses "class" to
refer to a boat type and "fleet" to refer to a group of boats that sail
against each other. Locally, we always refer to the group of boats that
sail against each other as a "class." To avoid confusion we change
"class" to be "boat type" and change "fleet" to be "class." Just a
heads-up on something that you might find confusing in the beginning.
3. Jon has pointed out that you can customize the RYA NHC Excel
spreadsheet to get what you want. I don't believe it has the ability to
ignore races built in but I'm pretty sure you could configure your
spreadsheet to do that automatically based on some hard criteria. Others
can advise on that.
Art
On 10/15/2013 2:27 PM, patrick.blaney@gmail.com wrote:
> I sail in Ireland where we have 2 clubs organising joint racing for
cruisers on the same lake.
> We sail in 2 classes, with a start 30 minutes apart (so as to finish
closer together), but using the same course. In practice with a 150 minute
target race duration this brings the fleet in reasonably close together in
terms of finishing time.
> We give results both by class and for the combined fleet.
> We use the ECHO Handicapping System , very similar to the RYA NHC, but
would like to move to a (computer based) progressive handicap system in
2014. We currently make manual adjustments, the source of much angst.
> My questions are as follows:
> 1. How to set up Sailwave to this effect - I think I understand aliases,
but not how to do this for different start times?)
> 2. Using the NHC Club based handicaps (already in our database), we
would like to use a progressive ECHO system that we could customise a
little, things like how progressive the adjustments would be, whether a
given race could be excluded (as an outlier because of unusual conditions),
and how to deal with new boats, or those who don't race regularly so that
those who race regularly are not disadvantaged.
>
>
> Any assistance or advice welcome
> Thank you
> Patrick Blaney