We (Hyannis YC) just finished our annual regatta and I'd like to ask for
comments on our experience with the 420 class. We expected about
60-70 boats but by Thursday (first race Friday), there were 122 boats
registered.

Race management in their wisdom decided to split the field up into four
colors: Red, Blue, Green, Yellow of 30 or 31 boats in each fleet. The plan
was to have a round robin of three races. In the first race the first start
would be Red and Blue; in the second start ten minutes later would be Green
and Yellow. This would reduce each start to a maximum of 62 boats. A
manageable number!

In the second race, the first start would be Red and Green; the second start
ten minutes later Blue and Yellow. In the third race the remaining
permutation would be used.

At the end of the round robin of either three or six races in the first day,
the entire fleet would be divided into a Gold and a Silver fleet for the
rest of the regatta. No scores from the qualifying round would carry over
into the final series.

At the end of the day, the first 15 boats from each fleet would be moved
into the Gold fleet for the finals. The others would go into the Silver
fleet.

If fact, we only had time for three races on Day 1 but it was a complete
round robin on which to base the separation.

IMHO management didn't design this round robin correctly. It would have been
fairer to take the top 60 boats from the three qualifying race
cumulative scores. Picking the top fifteen was unfair to someone who
happened to be in a fleet of top sailors but who would do well against the
average boats in the other fleets.

Is there a better way of separating out the players in a three day regatta?

ISAF has an Appendix KE that gives guidance to specifying the SIs for large
fleets (see http://www.sailing.org/rrs2001/KE011102.pdf). This uses a
reassignment of each boat to a different fleet each night (see Appendix C of
Appendix KE!). This mixes up the contestants so they all will sail against
each other. The selection into the Gold/Silver fleets is however done on the
basis of overall score at the end of the qualifiers. Since the fleets change
every night, it wouldn't be possible to take the first so many members of
any particular fleet.

Our results are at
http://www.hyannisyachtclub.org/quic...ts.asp?NavID=9
that has a list of the qualifying and final scores.

Ed
--
Edward E.L. Mitchell
Web: www.racesail.org
Phone: (508)771-0806
500 Ocean St., Unit 134,
Hyannis, MA 02601