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Progressive handicap

A progressive handicap adjusts every finisher's handicap after each race, so the next race is scored on how each competitor has been sailing. Sailboat Racing implements the RYA National Handicap for Cruisers (2014) exactly as Sailwave scores it.

How it works

  • Each race, finishers move part of the way towards how they sailed: 30% when they beat their handicap, 15% when they did not, half that for outliers. Then the fleet is rescaled so the total of the finishers' handicaps matches the total of their base handicaps (the class handicaps).
  • A boat that does not finish, retires, is disqualified, gets redress, or sails a pursuit race keeps its handicap. If fewer than 3 boats finish, nobody's handicap changes.
  • Boats on fewer laps are scaled to the leaders' laps.
  • A competitor in two progressive divisions has a separate handicap in each.

Starting handicaps

A competitor's first race in a series uses, in order: their starting rating for that division, if one is set; otherwise their class handicap. After that, each race uses the handicap the previous race produced.

To carry handicaps over from a finished series, open the series, choose Progressive handicaps, then Import from series.... Pick the source series and, for each division, the source division to take ratings from. Each competitor gets their handicap after their last race there. You can edit, remove or add starting ratings before saving. Importing again replaces the starting ratings of the chosen divisions.

When adding a starting rating by hand, the sail number, class and helm fields suggest values as you type: the series' classes, and the club's sail numbers and helms. You can still type anything.

Divisions

Only the divisions ticked in the series settings use the progressive handicap. Others score on the normal handicaps, so a series can publish both, for example an NHC fleet and a class PY fleet from the same races.

A series with no divisions can use the progressive handicap on its overall table.

Results show the handicap each boat sailed on. A boat that did not finish, such as a duty boat, shows the handicap it carries and keeps it for the next race.