Lapping Races

Lapping races are an alternative format where boats sail as many laps as possible in a fixed time period, rather than racing to a finish line.

Enabling Lapping Format

You can change a race to lapping format:

Go to the race detail page
Click the dropdown in the top menu and change from Standard to Lapping

Recording Lap Times

In a lapping race, you record each lap completion time instead of a single finish time:

For each entry, click to record a lap time, current time is recorded as the lap completion time 2Repeat for each subsequent lap

You can change or clear individual lap times if mistakes are made. This is available when entry details are expanded.

Lapping Configuration

The series scoring configuration includes lapping-specific settings. In the series form, the ? icon next to Lap correction opens this page.

Display Mode

Mode	Description
Single Lap	Corrected time is shown as the average time per lap
Most Laps	Corrected time is scaled to the number of laps sailed by the boat that sailed furthest

Display mode only changes the corrected time shown. Both modes produce the same finishing order: a lapping race is always ranked on the whole-race corrected time (the per-lap time scaled to Most Laps), to the whole second. Two boats whose per-lap times show the same second are not tied if their whole-race times differ by a second or more.

Display mode applies to lapping races only. In a standard race the corrected time is already for the whole race, so it is shown and ranked as it is.

How Corrected Time Is Calculated

Sailboat Racing follows the RYA Portsmouth Yardstick average lap racing method (RYA Portsmouth Yardstick Scheme 2007: Average Lap Racing). Each boat's elapsed time (from its start to its last recorded lap) is scaled to the number of laps sailed by the leading boat, then corrected in the normal way:

Corrected Time = Elapsed Time × Most Laps × 1000 / (Portsmouth Number × Actual Laps)

Actual Laps: laps sailed by this boat
Most Laps: laps sailed by the boat that sailed furthest

With Most Laps display mode, the corrected time shown is exactly this value. With Single Lap display mode, it is this value divided by Most Laps (the corrected time per lap).

For a background explanation of average lap racing, see the public average lap racing guide and calculator.

Lap Correction

In an average lap race, a boat that sails fewer laps can end up with a better average than a boat with the same Portsmouth Number that kept sailing. This happens because the boat on more laps sails part of an extra lap after the About-to-Finish (ATF) signal. Lap correction fixes this.

Option	Description
None	No correction applied
Same Rating	Standard RYA "Same PN Adjustment", applied separately within each group of boats with the same handicap rating
Same or Slower Rating	Sailboat Racing extension of the RYA formula: triggers when a boat on fewer laps beats a boat with the same or faster rating on more laps
Slower Can't Beat Faster	No times change. A slower-rated boat on fewer laps is ranked behind any faster or same-rated boat on more laps

Note: Same or Slower Rating and Slower Can't Beat Faster assume PY-style ratings, where a higher number means a slower boat. Do not use them with multiplier-based systems such as IRC, where a higher number means a faster boat. Same Rating works with any handicap system.

Same Rating (standard RYA formula)

Within a group of boats with the same rating, the adjustment is applied only if a boat on fewer laps has a better corrected time than a boat on more laps. When it applies, every boat in the group that sailed fewer laps than the group leader has its corrected time increased:

Modified Time = Corrected Time × Multiplier

Multiplier = Slowest × (Fastest Laps − 1) / (About-to-Finish Time × Fastest Laps)

Fastest Laps: the highest number of laps sailed by a boat in the group
Slowest: the longest elapsed time among the boats in the group that sailed Fastest Laps
About-to-Finish Time: time from the start to the ATF signal

Sailboat Racing differs from the RYA text in two ways:

The ATF signal time is not recorded. It is estimated as the shortest elapsed time of any boat in the race, minus 5 seconds. If this estimate is not shorter than Slowest, no adjustment is made.
The RYA text adjusts boats one lap behind the group leader. Sailboat Racing adjusts every boat in the group that sailed fewer laps than the leader.

Worked example

Two Streakers (PN 1124) start together at 19:00:00:

Boat	Laps	Last lap time	Elapsed
2190	2	19:30:00	30:00 (1800 s)
1645	1	19:14:00	14:00 (840 s)

Corrected time per lap (Single Lap display):
2190: 1800 × 1000 / 1124 / 2 = 800.71 s
1645: 840 × 1000 / 1124 / 1 = 747.33 s

Boat 1645 sailed one lap fewer but is ahead. Both boats have the same rating, so the adjustment applies. 2. About-to-Finish Time = shortest elapsed time − 5 s = 840 − 5 = 835 s 3. Multiplier = 1800 × (2 − 1) / (835 × 2) = 1.07784 4. Modified time for 1645 = 747.33 × 1.07784 = 805.50 s

Result: 2190 is 1st (800.71 s), 1645 is 2nd (805.50 s). With Most Laps display, the same times are shown multiplied by 2 (1601.42 s and 1611.01 s).

Same or Slower Rating

This option uses the same multiplier, but treats the whole fleet as one group. The adjustment is triggered if any boat on fewer laps has a better corrected time than a boat with the same or a faster (lower) rating on more laps. When triggered, Fastest Laps and Slowest are taken from the whole fleet, and every boat that sailed fewer laps than the leader is adjusted.

Slower Can't Beat Faster

Corrected times are not changed. After ranking, a boat that beat a faster or same-rated boat which sailed more laps is moved down to finish directly behind the last such boat. Rank and points are reassigned.

Timing on a Poor Connection

Lap times are saved on your device the moment you record them and sent to the server in the background, exactly like finish times. See Timing on a Poor Connection for what the sync strip means and what to do if a timing needs attention.