Hi Ed,

Thanks for your input. The question of "penalty" for failure to show up
is an old one, of course, and different racing environments will
probably be best served with different answers.

I am curious about your last statement regarding "the letter of the
law". I tend to agree that "boats entered" means all boats that entered
over the entire length of the series. Some in our club disagree,
believing the "boats entered" is a week-by-week floating number. Do have
have any reference for "the letter of the law" other than ordinary
interpretation of the English language?

In practical terms this entire matter is not a huge deal for us. We
allow some score exclusions, so for most boats who receive one or two
DNC scores it simply does not matter. In virtually no case is any boat
still holding DNC scores after the exclusions in contention for any
series awards.

Regards,
Gene Fuller


Edward Mitchell wrote:
Gene,

The fairest way to my mind is to score DNCs just like a DNS or DSQ. A9 says
that the DNC is number of registrants plus one but that is a really
draconian penalty when a normal long series could have a single race
participation rate of 50% to 70%. A DNS or DSQ, etc. is scored number of
boats that came to the starting area! With 20 boats registered and 10 boats
competing, to score the DNC boat as 21 and the DSQ boat as 11 doesn't seem
to make sense.

If you score the DNC the same as the DNS, then there is no difference when
boats join the series. If you don't, the letter of the law would say that
the original races should be rescored so the DNC boats are further
penalized.

Ed
--
Edward E.L. Mitchell
Web: www.racesail.org
Phone: (239)415-7039
6707 Daniel Court
Fort Myers, FL 33908

"Gene Fuller" wrote in message
...

A question has come up in our local sailing club about the correct, or at
least preferable definition of "the number of boats entered in the series"
wording in Appendix A9 of the RRS.

A typical series consists of 5 or 6 race days spread over a couple of
months. Clearly this falls within the meaning of a series longer than a
regatta. We allow registration to continue right through the series,
although the requirement for trophies demands a certain number of races
are actually sailed. There are several fleets of PHRF boats involved, and
all fleets are scored completely separately. The standard low point
scoring method in Appendix A is used. There are exclusions allowed, based
on the number of races that are conducted.

The question is what score should be given to boats that do not compete in
the earlier races, when the total registration may not yet be complete?

For example, suppose a fleet starts with 10 boats registered, and all 10
boats show up for the first race day. Only 9 boats show up for the second
race day. Now we add two new registrants before the third race day. For
simplification we will just keep that number through the end of the
series.

What is the proper score for the boat that missed the second race? Is it
11 points or 13 points? Does a boat that missed the 4th race get 13 points
while the boat that missed the second race gets 11 points? Should both
boats be scored at 13 points?

I have searched various places, and I have found various clubs have
different interpretations. Most, however, appear to say nothing in the
SI's. I have not been able to find anything in US Sailing or ISAF
documents that discusses the topic at all.

I suspect the bottom line is that we simply need to state a reasonable
rule and stick to it. However, I would like to determine if there is some
common standard that I have missed.

Regards,
Gene Fuller