Help for the Sail Yacht Racing Management System

• Items like section breaks, list of yacht clubs, scoring rules, classes of boats, etc are build in and can not be changed.
  

• Race:
  • A race is a single race, that is each boat may have only one start.
  • Races are numbered 1, 2, ... They do not have a name.
  • A race has a type, PTP or Buoy.
  • A race belongs to one and only one Event.
  • A race can be part of one or more Series.
  • A race can have a date. It can be different then the event date. The event date is the default if a race date is not listed.
• Event:
  • An Event is a group of races.
  • An Event has a name. The system does not care if more than one event uses the same name but the user might be confussed.
  • An event must have a date. Races in an event can be assigned diferent dates, but the event can not be given a date range. There can be more than one event on a given day.
  • Boats are signed up for an Event, not a race.
  • All races in an Event have the same boats entered.
  • All races in an Event must be of the same type ( PTP, Buoy)
  • An event lists which classes may race. The classes are the same for all races in an event.
  • All races in an Event must use the same section breaks.
  • An Event must have one and only one sponsoring club.
• Series:
  • A series is a group of races.
  • All the races in a Series must be in the same Season.
  • At some point, one can define a Series by picking races in various events. But currently, the only Series defined is one for each event which includes all the races of that event.
• Rating systems:
  • Currently the only rating system supported is PHRF.
• Class
  • Boats in an Race (Event) are separated into classes by boat type.
  • If a given boat's type is not listed as a one design class, they are put in the PHRF or JAM class.
  • Classes may be separated further into sections. ( see Section Breaks below )
• Section Breaks
  • Section Breaks are used to further separate boats in a class into sections.
  • Currently the only class with defined section breaks is the PHRF class.
  • There are different section breaks depending on the type of race.
• Boats
  • A boat has a Sail number, a Name, and a Type. Duplicates of Sail Numbers and Names are OK, but the combination of "Sail Number-Name-Type" must be unique.
  • The sail number must consist of only the digits 0 thur 9. Letters and other characters are not allowed. Leading zeros cannot to be used.
  • To race one design, a boat’s type must match exactly with the one-design destination i.e. a boat of type J-105 cannot race in the J/105 class.
  • Every boat must list a PHRF rating. This includes the one-design boats.
  • To have the option of racing in a JAM class when one is offered, a boat must also list a PHRF rating for JAM, herein referred to as jamPHRF.
• Seasons:
  • A season is a grouping of Events and Series.
  • A event, a Series and all the races in them, are in one and only one season.
  • Currently the only season is the 2009 Area III races. The ability to add other season is coming.

• The race committee rep is the main user of the system.(only one for 2009, other than public's display of results).
  • Typically when they login to the system before going out to start a race, the events will be in place and the boats entered will be listed by Friday 3:00 pm for a weekend race. If the race committee rep knows of problems with the entry list, they can correct it.
  • Once the entries are in place, the race committee rep can list and print the entries sorted in various ways.
  • If the race committee has internet service on the race course, they can use the system to check in boats, and to record finishes in real time.
  • Otherwise the race committee rep can enter the finish data when they do have internet service. The steps to do this entry are:
    • Login
    • Select the event
    • Select or add the race.
    • Enter start times, course distances, etc. for each section.
    • Enter a finish time or finish type for each individual boat.
  • The results are viewable on the web, as soon as they are saved.
• Time entries: Times are in the format hh:mm:ss ( hours:minutes:seconds, each two digits)
  The program tries to reduce the number of key strokes needed make an entry. If you have typed two digits, it will add an ":". If you go ahead and then type an ":" making "::", it will remove one. If the first digit entered for a pair is too big for the first digit, it will add a zero before it. Thus typing 378 gets you 03:07:08.
  Of course, if you are doing the entries in real time, you just click on the time entry and the computer's clock is used to make an entry. Also to avoid shift and for ease in using the number pad, a "." and a ";" are the same as a ":" for time entry.
• Date entries: Currently dates are displayed in the format of "24 June 2009". However you can enter the date in lots of different formats and the program will figure out what you mean. For example, any word starting with an S will taken as September.