Supporting two scorers for one event

General
1

I’m investigating using Sailwave for scoring an upcoming regatta. We’ve tried both Yatchscoring and Clubspot and they both have their pros and cons.

What I’m trying to see is if there’s a recommended way to have more than one scorer updating the same regatta. So far we’ve considered using a shared drive for the save files and using separate files for each class or course (open to suggestions there).

We wouldn’t be able to concurrently edit a particular course, but it would let us both enter results for different courses at the same time.

I also saw something about being able to run Sailwave as a React server? I’ve been in IT for ages, I’m comfortable working with more complex implementations too but I can’t find much about it in the user guide

2

Hi Ian,
Firstly welcome to the Sailwave User Group Forum.

The ONLY thing to make sure does not happen is that the same Sailwave file is NOT open more than once. Be this more than once on the same physical PC or more than once but on different physical PC’s. There is no locking of a Sailwave file.

The user guide which I wrote does not cover alternative ways of using Sailwave be that on Apple MacOS systems, Linux systems or in cloud instantiations of Windows.

You might find it useful to read the document produced by CORK organising authority on how they are set-up to score using Sailwave for the CORK Regatta, available for download from Sailwave User Guide | Sailwave.

I have found a shared drive system which creates a version each time you save is very useful. I use Dropbox & pCloud but others use Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive, but there are others available.

I have had occasions to pull back a previous version of Sailwave which has saved a lot of re-entering data!

Whether use use a separate Sailwave for each class or course is for me based on the circumstances and organisation of how races are run on a course area/circle. For a Finish Team being able to just record sail#'s as they cross the finish line without having to worry about class, fleet or flight is great - Sailwave sorts it all out, if configured correctly. When I was in charge of scoring the Sail for Gold Regattas here in the UK in the years prior to t he 2012 Olympics, we didn’t have cloud services so had use sneaker net if needed. But a scorer was usually assigned to a particular Class because the classes changed course areas on a daily basis, of which there were 6 possible course areas for the 10 Olympic classes.

I would not be surprised if one of the co-authors of the CORK guide posts a reply.

I hope you find the above of some interest.
Kind regards,
Huw

3

The best solution is to have a Sailwave file for each course (racing circle).

4

Thanks so much! I’m reading through the CORK manual, it’s on roughly the same scale we are. Lots of great information.

Good to hear the confirmation about concurrent access, I don’t see that being a problem with two people but that might be if we have to scale up. The CORK manual uses a local shared drive, but I think a OneDrive or something might be simpler.

5

Hi Iain,

Interested to know the sizes of the fleets you will be scoring and how many will be one design and how many will be handicapped.

Obviously, 1 design is easier/quicker as you don’t have to enter times
For 1 design events its quite possible for a single scorer to score upto around 350 competitors on two courses

Sailwave has a very efficient SailNo Wizard for entering results and in version 2.30.0 which is currently only available to a few while it is beta is even quicker for large events with the ability to select which starts are included in the results making the selection list shorter.

With a scorer for each race course and a separate file for each fleet, there should certainly be no issue with keeping up with results. Sharing the files via a cloud file system such as Dropbox, onedrive, pCloud or similar makes it easy.

Another task for the scorer is also producing lists such as lists for the committee boat. Sailwave includes another program SWCList which can be used to produce any type of competitor list and this can read any Sailwave .blw file without locking it as it only reads and does not modify the file so if they are on a shared location another person can produce all these lists offloading it from the scorer.

Additionally, it is possible if you think it’s needed, to import results from a CSV. So you could have results for each race imported into Sailwave. You could use a copy of Sailwave to produce these individual race results if you wish then the master scorer amalgamates them into the Master file.

Even more sophisticated is Sailwave’s ability to support a messaging system where most things can be automated. One user uses this to preload Android tablets with all the entries and then the results of each race are entered on the tablet and the messaging system loads it into the Sailwave.

It really is only limited by what you find easiest and the type of event and the quality of the personnel you have at your disposal.

One of the best ways to get good fast results is by making sure the quality of the results coming from the water is clear and correct. If the quality of the results is good it makes the scorer’s job so much easier and quicker, as they don’t have to process all the queries and corrections

With shared access to the Sailwave file it is possible to open it by someone else to help resolve queries, just make sure only one person saves the changes this can be achieved by only giving them read access if necessary.

Look forward to discussing in detail if you wish
Jon

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Four fleets of 30-90 boats each, all one design (but different designs in different fleets)

I don’t know what the rules are about talking about competitors, but… We found that YachtScoring was good on the scoring side but weak on registration. Clubspot is the opposite, weak on scoring, strong on registration.

CORK went for a third option: separating the registration and scoring functions. Scoring following RRS is a specialized function, but event management is not. You want some fields to collect relevant information like boat class, PERF, t-shirt size, etc… some of which will be relevant to scoring and some that will not.

I want non-scorers to be able to access and update registration data. The week leading up to the event is a constant flow of sail number changes, cancellations, etc… There are plenty of event management websites out there that support export to CSV, which is all that Sailwave needs to do its thing. If I have to code an intermediate step to shuffle some columns around that’s not a big deal.

Having to run software on a Windows PC is a bit of a constraint, but that could be mitigated by keeping a copy on a USB stick to “deputize” a back up computer. I was able to get it running on my Ubuntu laptop fairly easily too.

7

Hi Iain,

A good scorer should be able to handle that on their own. I often score events of over 300 - I’m scoring an event with 330 next week spread over several classes.

If you have 2 scorers with it split between fleets that should be very easy.

As you have said it is very easy to import data into Sailwave. Most entry systems require customisation and also require a webserver which incurs costs - Where as Sailwave is free of charge. I’m happy to set up some entry system but there is going to be a cost to that. There are some form systems such as Jotform’s (there are others as well) that allow you to create your own customised entries but again there is a cost for these.

Typically I only import into Sailwave once registration is finished (Although I do do a test import before so that it goes smoothly)

Using Google forms so that multiple people can have access is very convenient
Changes made at registration and measurement can both update the form and then at the last minute import into Sailwave. Google forms can also track changes so you can see any changes that are made after you imported.

Sailwave allows you map different column names during the import

Sailwave runs on almost any Windows PC from XP to Windows 11 - It can also run on Intel based Mac’s using PlayonMac for free or Crossover, For Apple silicon based macs I recommend using Parrallels. And Linux based machines using Wine.
You can also run it on a cloud based Windows server and remote into it from any type of machine this gives you ultimate flexibility at a small cost. It also runs on the React OS which is open source

Always open to suggestions Jon

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You’re right, we probably could have gotten away with one scorer, but the regatta management is big on having back ups for everything :smiley: That’s part of what appeals to me about the shared drive options. We won’t be one spilled coffee away from losing everything.

In the case of registration, I’m more of the mind to pay a little bit to have something I can let other volunteers into and is easy for the average person to use. I’m still investigating what the exact right option there is but there are plenty of services to choose from.

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