Introduction to Scoring Sailboat Regattas
(tailored to terminology found in JavaScore)
Contents
General Introduction (top)
This hasn't yet been written, volunteers wanted.
How do the Divisions Work? (top)
Release 3.0 of JavaScore adds the ability to score boats in "fleets" and "subdivisions". This will be easier to understand with some background terminology. A boat can be scored in a variety of ways:
- Several individual PHRF classes could be combined into an overall PHRF fleet.
- A large one-design regatta could be split into several "qualifying groups" which race in various combinations.
- A large regatta may include sub-groups for say, Juniors, or Masters, or Women
JavaScore's method of implementing fleets and subdivisions tries to take all of the different grouping into account.
There are three types of groupings for boats:
Starting Division: this is the fundamental group that in which a boat races. Its starts and finishes are recorded by the race committee in this context. When defining a single race, only starting divisions can be given a start. The finish dialog of a single race shows all the entrants in all the starting divisions that are flagged as participating in that race.
Fleet: A fleet is a combination of several Starting Divisions. All members of each Starting Division in a Fleet are combined into the fleet. Defining a fleet consists of specifying which starting divisions make up the fleet, and two options: (a) how to handle races where different starting divisions have different lengths races; (b) how to handle a race where two starting divisions in the fleet start at the same time (sharing a starting line).
Sub-Division: Within a Starting Division or Fleet, some boats may also be flagged as being part of a Sub-Division. They will be scored as part of that Sub-Division. All sub-divisions have a single parent that must be either a starting division or a fleet. Options in defining a sub-division include: (a) if a single boat can be part of more than one sub-division, and (b) if boats are "re-scored" within their subdivision as if other members of their parent group didn't exist (i.e if you were in the Youth sub-division of the Laser starting division, and in race 1 you finished 5th overall in the Laser but were the first Youth finisher - the scorer can specify whether that boat's score in the Youth subdivision should be 5 points or 1 point.
Samples of how to setup the typical fleet/subdivision groupings:
PHRF Overall as a combination of PHRF A, B, C divisions: The regatta should have 3 Starting Divisons: PHRF A, PHRF B, and PHRF C. It will also have 1 Fleet, "PHRF Overall" that includes these three starting divisions. Boats would be entered in either PHRF A, B, or C. They will start and finish in those groups.
Laser championship with groups for Youth, Women, and Masters:
This type of regatta would have a single Starting Division, Laser, and three
Sub-Divisions: Youth, Women, and Masters. For each of the
SubDivisions, the parent would be the Laser, and for each, boats could be
entered in more than one ( a teenage girl would be eligible for both Youth and
Women).
This is not a complete self-enforcing system, in a sample
such as this, JavaScore would not be able to enforce the likely rule that the
Youth and Master subdivisions should not have any "joint" members.
Optimist regatta with all sailors being in one of Blue, White, and Green (all are racing together in one start): The best way to set this up would be three Starting Divisions, Opti Blue, Opti White, and Opti Green. Each sailor is entered in one of these starting divisions. There would also be one Fleet, Optimist, containing each of the three starting divisions. In the Fleet definition, the flag for scoring boats that starting together as a single group should be turned on. So if the 3rd place boat is the first Opti Blue sailor, they will be scored 3rd place, not "1st" place. In each race, include all three starting divisions, and give them the same starting time.
The "typical" Qualification Series. A large fleet is
split into 4 groups, for example, Pink, Yellow, Green, and Blue. Each race
in the series has two starts with two of the groups starting in each
start. So in race 1, in the first start, Pink and Yellow race together
(and are scored as a single group), in the 2nd start, Green and Blue start (and
are scored) together. In Race 2, Pink and Green are in the first start,
and Yellow and Blue are in the second start.
Create 4 starting divisions (Pink, Yellow, Green, Blue) and
one Fleet "Overall". Set the flag that boats starting together
are scored together. In the first Race, give Pink and Yellow the same starting
time, then give Yellow and Blue a second starting time.