There seems to be some debate on the words to use when boats do not all sail together:
- when there are too many boats entered to run manageable races
- match racing, team racing, radio sailing
- league racing.
There are occasions when RC may be using one term, the results team another and the judges yet another.
Here are a few definitions taken from RRS and race documents. There will inevitably be other colloquial usages. I would be grateful if the collective wisdom of participants in this forum could confirm, contradict or comment:
Race: The basic unit in results! A race may be a single 'event' with one start and one finish, or a series of several 'events' (dinghy fleet split up, in radio sailing a series of 'events' known as heats) scored together.
Class: a group of boats that share a set of class rules (see ERS) or a rating/handicap system so that they can race together (ILCA 4, ILCA 6, 420, Metre Classes, IRC...)
Flight: in match racing: two or more matches started in the same starting sequence. In team racing: a set of boats that race together (Flight 1 will be the red and the yellow boats)
Fleet Boats of one class scheduled to race together (in Qualifying Race 1 for the ILCA 4 class boats will be scheduled to race in either Blue or Yellow fleet)
Heat: In radio sailing: a subdivision of a race: 'a race is divided into one or more heats and is completed when the last heat in the race is completed)
Group: in team racing the teams entered may be split into one or more groups. In a round robin stage each team in a group will race against each other team in that group (In a TR round robin stage, teams in Group 1 will sail in boats of flight 1
Stage: In team racing: a subdivision of the format- round robin stage/knockout stage
Series: In Appendix A: a number of races scored together to make a series (see App A2). In match racing a series is the same as a TR Stage (round robin series/knockout series
League A group of races within an event scored together to produce a result that may be part of another event. A group pf events scored together to produce a result.
This list is neither exhaustive nor definitive. I would be most interested to read your comments
This is not always the case.
1 In Appendix E a race consists of one or or more heats and is completed when the last heat iin the race is completed.
2 in a big dinghy event when a class sails as 2 or 3 fleets - in the qualifying series each fleet sails separately but the race is scored as one. So in each race there will be two or three boats with 1 point, 2 or 3 with 2 points. If all fleets do not complete their race then the overall race is not completed and does not enter into the series score.
It is cottect that if each flight sails a different number of races, then the si says the additional races do not count.
In sailwave i belive fleet and flight are often confused.
A fleet is a type of boat ilca4 or class 1
A flight is when a fleet is split into multiple starts, say gold silver.
What is a flighted race? I have never heard that expression. This may be a case of terminology creep. Which sort of illustrates my point.
The only mentions of flight in RRS are in MR and in TR. The word means different things in each discipline. In MR flight 1 is a number of races that can be sailed without any changeovers, so they can start in an uninterrupted sequence (6 boats= a flight is 3 races). In MR, a flight is a number of (hopefully)à equalised boats into which can be trabnsferred. In this case a flight is 4, 6 or 8 boats (depending on the TR discipline)
In fleet racing the race documents when there is a qualifying series for a class, the entries in that class are divided into fleets, often Blue and Yellow.
In that case Race 1, of the QF is only scored when both fleets have been scored. So race 1 of the QF is the amalgamated score of QF Race 1, Blue Fleet, and QF Race 1 Yellow Fleet.
There is an issue with Sailwave, and possibly other scoring systems, because they use alternative terminologies. Not a problem until there is a request for redress! It we would be helpful if we all used the same terms for the same thing.
Is this a contradiction?
My question: is one race a legitimate minimum for a series?
I was at that moth worlds as chief judge. We tried i deed did change the qualificaton but the push back off the internet was so great wehad to revertto what was written.
Organisors have sponsors and trophies thay need presenting, if the championship is void then you loose the sponsorship and future events.
In youth regattas, they want a winner, it may affect their future, so a one race regatta is valid.
In the moth class some had been at the venue for 6 weeks a considerable investment. To have no championship award was terrible.
I really from the first two (indeed one) race who was likley to win.
It was a shame but the nor cannot be changed late in the day.
I for weekend series always specify one race for a series.
Mike butterfield iro
I still say that, to be a series, you need at least two data points, but if the RRS (which does not define a series) allows the minimum number of races to be set to one, that part of the sentence in RRS A1 – 'and the number required to be scored to constitute a series' can be rendered ineffective. The RRS rule-drafters cannot have had this in mind when they made this condition compulsory. Perhaps RRS A1 should be amended to make this requirement optional. Nevertheless, deciding an event, let alone a championship, on the basis of one race would be farcical.