David wrote:
I have proved its a flaw system by the fact that the second place boat
if enough boats sail can actually get more points than the first place boat.
BUT thats not a flaw - thats intentional. Does coming first in a race
of 3 boats mean you sailed better than someone who came second in a race
of 25 boats? No-one can answer is the honest answer but CHIPS is
designed to assume 2nd in 25 is better than 1st of 3. Its no more a
flaw than standard low points assuming coming last of 3 boats is the
same as 3rd of 25 boats.
Secondly you are penalised by people not racing. say you sail all
season bar two races (take a holiday). You might find that even though
you beat certian people all season you can't beat them over all dueto
the fact that the loads of people raced the two races you couldn't
Can the same not apply with low point where people beat you because they
sail on the very poorly attended races..?
Thirdly you can not predict how to improve your position that all
depends on how may race.
I just don't buy into using strategies like this anyway. Go out, sail,
win if you are good enough. Sod calculating out if I can keep Sailor X
in 25th position he can';t beat me type strategy.
if for example its raining outside and not many people race you are
being penalised for not many racing.
Totally agreed. On the other hand if you use standard low points and
only 3 boats race because there is no wind and it clashes with the main
summer holiday week and most people are away it hardly seems right that
you can gain a first place by beating 2 boats.
If you race at a club that has difficulty getting members to race, the
chips system is no good, it puts people off.
Except your sentence starting 'Secondly' above says the opposite...
I wonder who it puts off? People who would normally be at the front of
the pack or people who would normally be at the middle / back?
it is not used for the olympics cause it is flawed.
No - its not used for the olympics BECAUSE the olympics have an entire
fleet there. You never have an olympic race where only 3 boats race.
You wouldn't use it for something like the RS nationals where there are
maybe 9 races over 3 days - the numbers in each race will remain roughly
the same. CHIPS should only ever be needed when the numbers racing
fluctuate.
the example you gave is down to the discard system not the low points
scoring. if chips was sued you could of ended up with sailing like the
euro vision song contest. boats sailing races to make
other nations win.
That is a very good point. It relates to the person who you said could
only sail the last race if 9 boats came. What if a 10th had come?
Would he have had to race to guarantee his place? I don't have enough
info to work it out... if so then those he was racing against should
have been encouraging a 10th sailor (other than him) to start...
Also it is based on the number of boats you beat and it is easy to beat
the back markers but difficult to beat the front of the fleet.
I'm one of those back markers! But if its a race of 3 boats I'm still
going to get 3rd place...