The Racing Rules of Sailing
Addressing the DNC Allocation Nightmare — Long Series Club Racing
Setting the DNC value for long series club racing (6–9 months, racing every Saturday) is a constant balancing act between Participation and Performance. For low point scoring - say you start the season with 34 entrants and expect a maximum of 15 boats starting in any of the 15 planned races. The usual options are:
(1) a "hot" Entrants + 1 value, e.g. 35, rising or falling as the season progresses;
(2) Starters + 2, 3, 4 etc, recalculated race by race (Say Starters +4)
After allowing for two discards, the arguments start:
Under option (1), high performers who miss one or two races beyond their discards say: "It's unfair — I'm carrying 35 (or 70 for two missed races), I'm out of contention."
Under option (2), the moderate performers who rarely miss a race, and give the club great support say: "It's grossly unfair — last week's blow saw only 6 boats start and 3 DNF, so the no-shows got Starters + 4 = 10, less than what I scored finishing 12th in a 15-boat fleet the week before."
One proposed solution is a fixed DNC value, say 21, agreed by the club at the season's outset, but open to adjustment (as season goes).
This shifts the balance between participation and performance toward a fairer compromise. Sailres, the package we use, doesn't support a genuinely fixed DNC value natively. Do other packages????
A workaround we're testing in simulations is setting DNC = Entrants + (-14), ( a negative value) giving 21 when entrants = 35.
Testing confirms Sailres accepts this (!!!!). The value will still drift as entrants join later in the season (e.g. becoming 24 or 25), but simulations suggest this remains an 'effective' compromise — letting high performers stay in contention with consistent results, carrying 21 or 25 per missed race instead of 35 or 39. The moderate performers have the results for more races sailed - better respected.
Any suggestions for this => Note: Long Series Club Racing; Not Regattas.
(1) a "hot" Entrants + 1 value, e.g. 35, rising or falling as the season progresses;
(2) Starters + 2, 3, 4 etc, recalculated race by race (Say Starters +4)
After allowing for two discards, the arguments start:
Under option (1), high performers who miss one or two races beyond their discards say: "It's unfair — I'm carrying 35 (or 70 for two missed races), I'm out of contention."
Under option (2), the moderate performers who rarely miss a race, and give the club great support say: "It's grossly unfair — last week's blow saw only 6 boats start and 3 DNF, so the no-shows got Starters + 4 = 10, less than what I scored finishing 12th in a 15-boat fleet the week before."
One proposed solution is a fixed DNC value, say 21, agreed by the club at the season's outset, but open to adjustment (as season goes).
This shifts the balance between participation and performance toward a fairer compromise. Sailres, the package we use, doesn't support a genuinely fixed DNC value natively. Do other packages????
A workaround we're testing in simulations is setting DNC = Entrants + (-14), ( a negative value) giving 21 when entrants = 35.
Testing confirms Sailres accepts this (!!!!). The value will still drift as entrants join later in the season (e.g. becoming 24 or 25), but simulations suggest this remains an 'effective' compromise — letting high performers stay in contention with consistent results, carrying 21 or 25 per missed race instead of 35 or 39. The moderate performers have the results for more races sailed - better respected.
Any suggestions for this => Note: Long Series Club Racing; Not Regattas.
Created: Today 16:14
Comments
Format:
You must be signed in to add a comment.
Sailwave does allow DNC to be a fixed number of points.
Sailwave also has a choice of different, what are called methods, for allocating points to scoring codes
One that you might be consider is ' Points for the place of the (max number of boats that came to the start area in any one race + N places)'
Kind regards,
Huw
Also, The number of scores to count is the the 1st whole number above the total number of races completed in the series.
This provides a balance between the “average sailors” that turn up each week and the “hot shots” that can’t race each week or choose not to.
It works for our club where we have been using this format for many many years but as always it is a big of a fudge and you can argue both ways about whether it is fair or not.
Eg: if after dropping 30% of races across the entire season for each boat, if there are any DNC’s remaining, that boat is not eligible for scoring.
Essentially promoting attendance whilst allowing for people to take time away when they can’t race.
Once boats are deemed eligible, the DnCs become the value of the number of all eligible boats +1 and then actual scoring is completed (as per your regular rules for drops etc).