Last weekend I sailed in a small local regatta with two of
my regular sailing buddies, Judy (the Center
of Effort blogger) and Eric (Apparent
Wind author). We are all about the
same skill level and usually take turns beating the other. We all went to Cabarete last January for some
coaching, and we all hoped to somehow make a quantum leap in our performance
this year. Until last weekend, there
were no leaps.
Then on Saturday, Judy leapt. Her speed downwind was blowing me away, and
she was clearly the fastest sailor in the regatta off the wind. Center
of Effort has recently featured interviews and advice on downwind sailing
from two of the country’s top laser sailors, Clay Johnson and Ben
Richardson. I read the blogs, but so
far, no leaping on my part. Judy must be
a better reader than I, because she has figured out how to transform words into
boat speed.
She beat me by one or two places five out of seven times on
the weekend. The last race on Saturday was
out of character with all the others. I
was lucky enough to win the start, get to the first mark with a lead, and hang
on downwind, beating a “clearly better sailor” who won all of the other
races. Judy, who had finished second in
all of the previous four races, worked the boat a little too hard downwind,
capsized, and finished 6th.
With a 5 point spread in one race our scores suddenly became
close. Judy wasn’t worried because she thought
she could throw out the bad race. I
clung to hope by recalling that the sailing instructions had said that all
races would be counted. None of us could
find our copy of the sailing instructions, but we were all clear that Judy had
beaten us on the day by either scoring system.
The only question was by how much.
The next morning we checked the interim results, and sure enough, there
was a throw-out. I didn’t know whether
to doubt my reading skills or doubt the race committee who demonstrated
problems with their scoring in previous years.
In my competitive spirit, I told myself all I needed to do
the second day was beat her every time and hope there were a lot of races. It turned out there were only two races on
Sunday. I beat her in the first race by
two places and she beat me in the second by what seemed like ¼ mile, but only
one place. I congratulated Judy on her second place finish in the regatta. (The “clearly better sailor” had first place
locked up.) I was both happy for her and envious in terms of her substantial
improvement in sailing skills.
I didn’t stay for the awards. Last year, it was a two hour wait. Judy didn’t stay either and apparently, there
were no awards. Judy watched the
internet for final results and on Friday, they were finally published. There in black and white, the results
declared that Judy finished third and I finished second. Say what?????? How could that be? For five days (and to this day), we all
agreed Judy had sailed a great regatta and had beaten all except the superstar
who won 6 of 7 races.
It was as if the Russian figure skating judge had given me
an obviously biased perfect score that vaulted me to an undeserved silver medal. I’m sure we all looked for some giant mistake
in recording one of the races, but they were all correct. But, unlike the interim results, all races
were counted in the final scoring – no throw-outs. The results for second were a tie between me
and Judy, and according to the RRS tiebreaking system, I won the tie.
This was disconcerting in two ways. The first was that, with the exclusion of
throw-outs, the rules of the game seemed to change after the fact, and the
second was that it is unusual and perhaps unfair that one sailor can beat
another 5 of 7 times and lose.
For a race committee to say one thing, do another, and then
go back to the first option is unusual (fortunately for me) and gives the appearance
that they make up the rules as they go along.
Also, in this case, the scoring system seems arbitrary. We sail the races, and then someone makes up
scores.
The rules in one sense ARE arbitrary. I coach high school sailing and have some
familiarity with college sailing, and each of these have somewhat different
methods of keeping score and different methods of breaking ties.
The first difference is the inclusion or exclusion of
throw-outs. RRS has them, high school
and college sailing don’t. (RRS also
allows for no throw-outs if stated in the sailing instructions.) More often
than not, throw-outs do not alter the regatta finishes, but sometimes they do.
The next difference is the varying tiebreaker hierarchies.
RRS tiebreakers
1.
Number of
firsts, number of seconds, etc.
2.
Score of last
race
College tiebreakers
1.
Head to head
2.
Number of
firsts, number of seconds, etc.
3.
Score of last
race
High School tiebreakers
1.
Head to head
2.
Number of
firsts, number of seconds, etc.
3.
For first place,
there must be a sail-off. For all other
places, the tie remains.
Thankfully, most of the finishing places in a regatta are
determined on the water and remain the same regardless of the scoring system
used. Beyond that, it would be nice if
we could all agree how to score close racing, but we can’t. Different rules will declare different
winners.
RRS has no place at all for head to head results, but they
are the first tiebreaker for high school and college. With no throw outs, head to head seems like a
just, clear and decisive way to pick a winner, but when there are throw-outs,
there are fewer head to head races and perhaps it is not so clear.
It was very clear in our regatta last weekend. The outcome of the battle between Judy and me was determined
by rules more than better sailing.
RRS with throw-out – Judy wins by 2 points
College Rules – Judy wins head to head 5-2
High School rules – Judy wins head to head 5-2
RRS with no throw-out – I win it in a tiebreaker with one
first and one second to her four seconds
This doesn’t feel like winning.
I can’t even think about high point scoring (AC 45 fleet
racing), the high point percentage system, the Cox Sprague scoring system, and
the low point bonus point system.
Then there is the Olympic scoring system which shortens the
last race (medal race) and counts it double.
The result of the last race is also the tiebreaker. In a ten boat medal race, the winner would
get two points and the last place finisher would get 20 and not be able to
throw it out. Consider an18 point swing
when Anna Tunnicliff won gold with a regatta total of only 37 points. A gold medal winner could conceivably lose more
races head to head, have fewer first place finishes, and win the gold medal
based mostly on this one race. The gold
medal winner will be famous, and his/her life will change forever. The silver medal winner will likely think
about scoring systems.
