Yachting-Live

Portsmouth Yardstick Goes Online
There are exciting developments currently being worked on with 30 clubs around the country, which will vastly improve the data collection of results within the RYA’s Portsmouth Yardstick Scheme.

The aim is to improve the quality and quantity of the statistics from the data supplied by clubs, by using an on-line system.

Since its introduction in 1952, the Portsmouth Yardstick Scheme has relied upon clubs’ annual Returns of race results for combination class fleets, both cruisers and dinghies. In recent years these have proven to be too few in number and often of reduced quality.

There have also been inaccuracies in the boat data supplied meaning some of the Secondary and Primary Yardsticks have created local issues. Some classes have not been allocated a Number, as in some instances there has been no data provided.

This has proven particularly frustrating for new classes, often requiring 2 to 3 years to catch up with enough data for publication. Disappointingly, in 2007, less than one third of affiliated clubs made their annual Returns.

Using existing race calculation programs such as ‘Sailwave’ or equivalent, the new system will provide an on-line results service, at the same time giving the RYA an accurate analysis of the race data.

Each club will be able to access the system on line while inputting actual times for their results calculation.

Annual Returns of results from each club will become an automatic process, although they will still require manual validation from the club’s Returning officer to keep within the published guidelines.

This system should be fully developed for all clubs by January 2009, allowing for an improved handicapping system from the increased results collection scheme. For 2008, the on line Returns are being run for 30 clubs for cruisers and dinghies and across different types of inland and coastal racing.

The latest Portsmouth Numbers for 2008 have just been published and are now available on the RYA website, click on Knowledge Base/Technical.

www.rya.org.uk

Popularity: 11% [?]

Listen to this podcast

This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 6:12 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.