Simple Heat Racing System

[Zoran]

CRO NCA just made Resolution for the upcoming AGM with proposal to replace current Heat Management System (HMS) with Simple Heat Racing System (SHRS). Complete text can be found here - http://www.scor.hr/regate/2014e/SHRS.pdf


Justification:

SHRS is giving following advantages:
- Same number of heats sailed by each competitor
- Increase of maximum number of boats on the championship (80 with 5 heats of 16 boats up to 90 with 5 heats of 18 boats) making much easier race management and umpiring
- Reduce of number of requests as there is no promotion nor relegation
- More close racing with smaller difference in overall points requiring race tactics to be sail to win each race instead of keeping the place to remain in the heat
- No delays for waiting of protest hearing decisions
- No need to any heat re-scheduling in case of withdrawals
- Final heats raced on the second half of championship can be organized independently giving more freedom to the schedule of races (for example some heats racing in the morning, while other race in afternoon)

Complete resolution can be found here - http://www.scor.hr/regate/2014e/ResolutionSHRS.pdf

[Hiljoball]

I can see some advantages –
- No waiting for protests,
- Max heat size of 16.
- Eliminates ‘sailing on the bubble’ effect that happens in a two heat HMS system.

But I see some issues that are not listed.
- In the Qualifying round heats, the best skippers are spread through the heats, and so each heat becomes a procession of a few top skippers, followed by mid-pack, and tale-enders. In HMS heats, skippers have to race harder as they are always racing skippers of similar ability.
- Under HMS the best skippers quickly rise to the top and race each other through the whole regatta, not just the Final Round heats.
- A boat may do well (or badly) in light conditions of the Qualifying races, and gets locked into a fleet (gold, silver, bronze etc) for the final series – but a big change in conditions and the boat sails much better (or worse), but the skipper cannot improve overall regatta placing.
- Protests need to be held soon after the incident or memory fades and facts become distorted. Holding protests to the end of the day, incidents can become confused.
- There is a pause after every set of heats to update the heat board and show every skipper which heat they race next.
- HMS quickly separates the less experienced skippers from the top skippers, and reduces the chance of a foul spoiling a top skipper’s heat.

Not listed as a financial advantage – I could see the fleet max being increased back to 20 and allow 100 boats to attend a five heat type World Championship at a high demand location (like Foster City/San Francisco). However letting in many more skippers affects the country max allocations system, and reduces the value of in-country ranking systems.

An interesting proposal, basically an extension of the ‘Odds and Evens’ system, but for larger events; but I would like to see it used for some National Championships and Continental Championship level events to prove its value before legislating its use at the Worlds.

The IOMICA follows the IRSA Championship Regatta rules, so this proposal should be made to the IRSA to modify their regulations.

John

[RoyL]

This proposed system is very similar to the old "odd/even" heat matrix system but with the added component of locking you in to a "fleet" with no chance of advancement part way through the event. Gives you all the disadvantage of racing with a mixed group of skill levels (consider how someone who is in contention to win will feel when he is taken out by a relative newcomer) followed by no chance to ever get to the top and sail with the best. HMS might not be the perfect system, but it seems far better than this proposal. BTW, how many people do you think would simply go home after being locked into a lower fleet?

[David L Alston]

I am surprised that this post has not drawing more response. I was half expecting comments like ' Nuts'


Rescheduling

The HMS system has taken a simple and rather good concept just a bridge too far, I refer to the reschedule after 2..3 races. The simple round of seeding races followed by 4 or 6 boat promotion / relegation can be done by hand without a computer and any stress or need to reschedule simply by moving the name tags on the heat board

Retirees simply end up in the bottom fleet after a few rounds because each time they do not sail they are relegated. In extreme case the bottom fleet naturally disappears.

Locked Fleets

The system described here, to me seems only to focusses upon declaring a winner and as Roy quite rightly states and simply lets the rest bang around for the rest of the event.

One might just as well have the seeding races and those that do not qualify for the A fleet simply go home after the first race

We seem to continually forget that it is 20th to 60th placed competitor that gives greatness to the top 5 finishers. The battle for 39th place is no less exciting to the competitor than the battle for 1st.


Protests

There is no need for long and draw out protests. In some cases the outcome of a Protest has no bearing upon the promotion to the next heat so thing can continue. However protests should be dealt with inside 5 minutes of the boats coming off. It is my experience that mostly it is the Organisers and Protest committees draw thing out by not having a Protest Committee in place before the start of the event.

However we, radio sailing, should re-access the RRS and should rid ourselves of most of it and its baggage, sages, wizards, interpretations case books and return to the basic rules.

I sincerely believe that the last MYA National Championship was marred by Protests, mostly originating from the race administration and a single observer, spoiling an other wise very well run and pleasant event.


I would suggest that any motivation for a change in the scoring/ heat management system based upon protests and rescheduling is not valid.

Fix what is broken in place of trying to work around it.
.

[roberts martin]

HMS as system works for radio sailing.The problem it does have ( when using the 6 promotion/ relegation) is race 2 to race 3.I have always felt that it's deeply unfair that at race 2 you have a 4 boat promotion then race 3 you go to 6. This means there is even more pressure on your seeding race. If you look a Rob Walsh at this years Worlds 5th in his seeding then 5th in race 2B so no promotion. Does get promotion in race 3, but is already 25 points behind the leaders .
The 2 ways to solve the problem are either
1 Have 6 boat promotion in race 2 ( so 21 boats in A fleet) then go back to 20 for race 3.
2 Have 3 seeding races. You can schedule these before the event starts and means you can sail against over 40 skippers in the 3 races.You can then go straight into HMS in race 4 with 6 boat promotion

[Frank Russell]

I have sailed most systems over the last 40 years from grid to he current HMS. The current system is the result of evolution and some revolution over that time. If the current HMS system has a problem as described, better to just fix the problem rather than go to a new "Nuts" system.

[Gordon Davies]

At a 5 or 6 day event I would be in favour of 3 seeding races. With no promotion there would be no hold ups for protests.

Gordon

[Bruce Andersen]

The only problem we've had with HMS is that it stops after 41 races, but to be honest, we were ready to stop too!

[Olivier Cohen]

At a 5 or 6 day event I would be in favour of 3 seeding races. With no promotion there would be no hold ups for protests.

Gordon

Seeding races are not interesting as you don't race with competitors of similar level. (Same opinion on simple heat racing system proposed)

I am in favour of HMS with 6 promoted in race 2, so racing with 21 boats if necessary. It's clearly not a problem at big events with (usually) suitable sailing site.

[Zvonko]

Hi Everyone

First I would like to say this topic is for discussion of Simple Heat Racing System (SHRS) not how to improve current Heat Management System (HMS) for that please open new topic.

In my mind I like SHRS because 3 things.

1. You need to sails for win every race, and they all count plus racing is close all the way through championship.

For example at half of championship 15 races 1st and 15th had 150 points difference and on SHRS it would be round 30
At HMS if you win in lower fleets it is all the same as you finish 6th so the guys at top do not race between them self.

2. No delay between races and no spending everyones time to do nothing and sit on the grass most of the day.

Protest can be done after sailing (if needed let every one go sooner and guys that have protests can stay and sort them out). Seeding is simple so after every race you know where you sail on next.
For example if you have 6th fleets 3 can sail in morning and 3 in the afternoon even in qualification, you get half day off every day and still make same number of races. I would like to have half day free go around and see all the nice places where we have WC and EC and not spend them waiting for race or protest.

3. Possible to have more competitors and lower entry fee.

At last WC we had 76 competitors if we have used SHRS we could have 100 with same number of people sailing in each fleet. So for organisation it is all the same cost (even more they can get better deals at hotels), so the entry fee should be 76% of what it was (example it was 500 USD ti would go down to 380 USD)
Since there is no delay like mentioned in No 2. we could have 6 fleets and similar number of races so it is 120 competitors and the entry fee should be 64% of what it was (example it was 500 USD ti would go down to 317 USD)



That is all for now

Regards Zvonko Jelacic CRO 35

[Olivier Cohen]

Hi Zvonko,

You are right, it's not the place to discuss improvements of HMS.

For the rest :
1/ In your proposal, you are right, all the races are important. As seeding races are. In fact half the championship is just seeding races. In my opinion it's not interesting racing as racing with competitors of similar level is. And after qualification period, heats are defined, so no possibility to improve overall result out of your defined heat. If you have a few bad luck in first heats, you can't recover. Ian Vickers was 22nd after 5 races in Foster City. So he should spend the rest of the event sailing for 16th place ? Great...

2/ Thanks to some improvements in Jury procedures, we have had only 1 or 2 long stops between races during the World championship. I don't change a system which works just because of that.

3/ Your logic about entry fee is not correct. Part of the fee is to pay for umpires and other fix costs, so on this you are right. But all the rest (meals, gifts) is a cost per competitor.
Besides, do we really need a WC with 100 or 120 competitors ? Are you sure that so much competitors from abroad will join, or will it be only competitors from host country ?


All this to say that I wouldn't like sailing an event with such sailing system.

I prefer sailing all the event with you !
Regards.

[Robert Matulja]

Hi ,

I would like to answer on one question and share with You feew facts.
Olivier, the example what You have writen with first five races of Ian Vickers is not relevant for SHRS sistem.
1. No way that you will have just five qualification races in first part of champiionship (3 Days)
2. In SHRS sistem , He could not stuck in B fleet and make 23rd and 26th place
3. Just because of that example, You can put more discards in qualification round , for example after 12 races 3 or 4 discards

and here are some numbers from 2015 worlds results from lay day to the end (thursday-saturday)

The fact is , that from top 10 skippers all of them except Walsh and Matic just one race, sailed in A fleet.
Now, imagine that was GOLDEN fleet in SHRS sistem. Just take a look on points difference.
So, results from Thursday-Saturday ( 11 races , 2 discards)
1.GBR 42 - 37 points
2.CRO 35 - 39
3.FRA 100- 43
4.NZL 171 - 46
5.CRO 8 - 47
6.GBR 39 -48
7.CRO 33 - 56
8.FRA 73 - 58
9.GBR 25- 66
10.CRO 4 - 100
and results from Friday-Saturday ( 9 races, 2 discards)
1.CRO 35 - 27 points
2.FRA 100 - 30
3.GBR 42 - 33
4.CRO 33 - 34
5.NZL 171- 34
6.CRO 8 - 35
7.FRA 73 - 36
8.GBR 39 - 38
9.GBR 25 - 38
10.CRO 4 - 78

These differences You can expect in all fleets. You will have interesting batles, close racing for every point and people will enyoi it!!
Some more numbers from previous worlds.
For example,if you make from 76 boats ,5 fleets of 15 , now the differences was betwen 1st, 2nd or 3rd in fleets :
A fleet (1st-2nd) 25 pts
B fleet (16th-17th) 23 pts
C fleet (31st-32nd) 7 pts, (32nd-33rd) 29 pts
D fleet (46th-47th) 2 pts, (47th-48th) 21 pts
E fleet (61st-62nd) 99 points !!

Just one more thing. Many people say , SHRS sistem do not gives You chanse to sail with top skippers.
From Thursday to Saturday, just 8 people sailed between E or D fleet to A fleet. Most of them just sailed one race in A and droped back down from where they started.

Best Regards

CRO 33

[Olivier Cohen]

The fact is , that from top 10 skippers all of them except Walsh and Matic just one race, sailed in A fleet.
Now, imagine that was GOLDEN fleet in SHRS sistem. Just take a look on points difference.
So, results from Thursday-Saturday ( 11 races , 2 discards)
1.GBR 42 - 37 points
2.CRO 35 - 39
3.FRA 100- 43
4.NZL 171 - 46
5.CRO 8 - 47
6.GBR 39 -48
7.CRO 33 - 56
8.FRA 73 - 58
9.GBR 25- 66
10.CRO 4 - 100

CRO 33

Thanks Robert, that system is not so bad !

Seriously, you write that just 8 people sailed from E to A. OK, but how many sailed from E to D and stayed, how many from D to C and stayed, and how many from B to A to stay a few races ?

Main problem is not being able to improve its score of more than 15 places in last 3 days...which is obviously possible with HMS.
If you come to an event with a target of top 10 and you are 16th after qualification, whatever good you are on the last days, you can't improve...Is it worth staying or should you go and visit San Francisco ?

[Robert Matulja]

Map1.xlsx

(19.97 KiB) Downloaded 4117 times

In these attachment You can see improvement of competitors in Foster City.
Average improvement is realy small, so I cant see how You can improve 15-20 places.


Best Regards

CRO 33

[Olivier Cohen]

Thanks for stats.

So you can see that Graham Bantock has improved of 13 places.

Another one improved 10 places.


Nothing else to add.

[Gordon Davies]

We use similar systems in team racing. One thing competitors hate is being seeded in to Gold Silver and Bronze fleets too early. I believe that with SHRS system we could avoid this by:

- sailing one full day (or an agreed number say 3-5) of qualifying races
- split the competitors into 5 ranked fleets.
- at end of day 2 (or an agreed number of races) promotion and demotion between fleets
- repeat each day.

Scoring either:

- by accumulating points over the week. This greatly disadvantages boats that get promoted.
- more exciting: each day is a separate mini series with the only object being to get promoted or avoid demotion. Boats start each round with zero points.
- this means that on the last day any of the 16 boats in A fleet can win the championship on the basis of 2 or 3 races.

[Zoran]

Olivier, please note that you can not compare any standings at the half of championship using HMS and SHRS as these are two different scoring systems and accumlating points for racing in B or C fleet by HMS will never happen in SHRS.

The number of qualifying races scheduled by SHRS for first 3 days of championship is quite enough to determine composition of gold, silver, bronze etc... fleets. And heats are composed based on the results of previous race, so on the end top skippers will always be on the top. Qualifying races can be defined as for example 12 races with 2 discards or even 3 discards (temporarily). (or whatever number we can find as appropriate to the event),

If you are 17th in overall after the qualifying races then you deserve to be in silver fleet - it is quite simple. With HMS there is also no way that someone who is 17th at the half of championship will win it on the end.

Please do not mix SHRS for any odd/even or Naviga systems as it has nothing to do with it. However, it is not inventing "hot water" as similar systems are already used in other classes of big boats. In addition we have the advantage to have opportunity to change heat composition after each qualifying race making whole qualifying round more fair and defining final heats on best possible way.

I hope that documents at the begging of this topic are describing it well, but sometimes may be easier when you see how it works in practice. We have been using SHRS in Croatia for last two years without any problem and all foreign competitors coming to our events were happy with it.

Zoran

[Gordon Davies]

Zoran,

I would not argue with your statement:

'If you are 17th in overall after the qualifying races then you deserve to be in silver fleet - it is quite simple. With HMS there is also no way that someone who is 17th at the half of championship will win it on the end.'

However there is a huge psychological difference between not being able to do better than 17th and having 3 days to try and gain a few places, and maybe enter the top 10. By shutting the door we tread on the dreams of our sailors!

[Zoran]

Gordon, for a competitor who finish 17th after qualifying races, events not stops there. He continue in silver heat racing among boats of similar ability and on the end it may be more challenging to win silver fleet rather to trying to move up one or two places.

I can tell this from my personal expirience where I was first below the line two times. Both times I won silver fleet on the end altough it was not quite easy. But I was satisfied with my performance. If I was in gold fleet with current composition of strong Croatian fleet frankly I doubt that I could make better than second to last.

[Graham J Elliott]

Dear all,

looking at all the comments that are trying to fix HMS it is obvious to me that it is broken.

I really like the idea of SHRC but would split into GOLD, SILVER, BRONZE a little later in the event, if it is a 6 day event, split after 4 or 5 days. This is a minor point though and i would urge everyone to at least give SHRS a trial run for a major Championship, Euro 2016?

Sounds good to me, well done.

Graham Elliott

[CHATIN Achille]

Hi everybody!

As far as I could understand, with the SHRS the target is :

1- with the qualifying round : mix as much as possible skippers (of any level) in a pre determined number of qualifying heats, in order to get fixed fleets of boats of each level (average points of each skipper determining its final round fleet)

2- with the final round : exclusively skippers of similar level races in fixed fleets (no promotion/relegation) for a non specified number of races ; the challenge is to win in the fleet you are. Number of heats to sail is fixed per advance.

I am right ?

In order to understand better that newcoming sistem, it would be great, Zoran, to share on this topic the detailed results of one (or more) of Croatian race made under that system.

Thank you!

[Zoran]

Hi Achile,

You made great short summary. Just a note that number of race in qualifying and final round can be decided either by the number of racing days or exact number of races.

In Croatia we have mostly 2 days events where we have by our national rule max. of 18 races in two days with no more than 10 races in one day. When we have heats we use SHRS with 6 qualifying race and 12 final races. In determining heats for the final stage we use overall results after 6 qualifying races with temporarily discard of 2 worst scores. You can see how it worked on the results of 21st Rijeka's RC regatta here - http://www.scor.hr/regate/2015e/Rijeka%202015.htm

For World and Continental championships there can be different arrangments for number of qualifying and final races. I would suggest having lay day in the middle of championship and all races before that as qualifying and all races after that as final

Regards

[George Pedrick]

I apologize for posting this twice. I originally posted in a different thread.

The proposed system has some advantages and disadvantages. I think a two year period where it is tested, best practices developed and disadvantages brought out would be appropriate. I don't see HMS as broken, it just has some draw backs. The proposed system has some draw backs as well.

For example, lets say you plan a four day regatta. The first two days are for qualifying, the second two are for final rounds. You have nice winds for the first two days and get in a lot of racing. You then divide the fleet up into gold silver bronze, etc. Then on the remaining two days you have no wind, as in blowing zero. You don't have a regatta. You would have to complete at least one race in the final rounds to have a regatta and that one race would determine the final finish order. Under HMS you would have a regatta with well defined finish order.

That being said, I am game to try the proposed system. Perhaps it is better. Jump right in to making it the class standard...No.

[George Pedrick]

Zoran,

I have a question. Let's say we have three fleets, A, B, C, with sixteen boats in each fleet. At the end of the qualifying round we have three skippers, one from each fleet, with the same score. As you mention, the points scores will remain close as you will always finish in the top sixteen. Now you need to divide the fleet into gold, silver. bronze, and the three skippers are on the edge of qualifying for the gold fleet, however there is not enough room for all three. How do you break this tie?

Perhaps this never happens or there is something I am not considering.

[Hiljoball]

I would describe HMS as a ladder system – sail well and you move up the ladder, sail badly and you move down –but other than the first seeding race, you have to sail hard all the time as you are always competing against sailors of similar skills. In HMS, you have the opportunity to move up or down the fleet right to the end of the regatta.

SHRS is a two part regatta consisting of a continuous series of seeding races until the split for Phase 2, where you are locked into your group. So in phase 1 of SHRS you race against a mix of skills with easy wins for the top sailors, followed by mid fleet, followed by tail enders. So in Phase 1 the racing is not tight, it is processional. Only after the Phase 2 groups are set, do the top sailors finally get to race each other. And the rest of the sailors are restricted in that they cannot improve out of their group - might as well pack up and go home.

SHRS also has some issues with handling discards and awarding redress as you move into Stage 2.

Discards.- For example, assume a regatta of 4 heats of 20 boats that sail 15 complete races by the end of phase 1. A given sailor finishes most heats in (say) 3, 4 or 5th place. With those points, he makes it into the A fleet for phase 2. In phase 2 he is racing against the top racers and is at the bottom of the A fleet – After Race 16 an additional discard is allowed – His earlier finishes are all 3,4 and 5, so he drops (say) an 18th place from Race 16 – where is the sense in that.

Now for Redress – let’s assume the same scenario as above, but in race 16 he is disabled in an incident and files for and is awarded Redress. But how to score him? Based on his skills, he would be near the bottom of the A fleet, but his average points from Round 1 is (say) equal to 4th.

I am opposed the SHRS in style, and very opposed to a motion that seeks to mandate its use in place of HSM.

John

[Zoran]

George, to answer your questions:

1. As scoring is the same for each heat you have overall results after each race in preliminary round. Therefore you can have results even with preliminary round only. Of course, it is always expected that you will do at least one race in for example two days of final round, but you are not loosing the regatta if there is no any final race

2. Ties for fleet composition for the final round are decided as per RRS A8 meaning for the boat with most 1st places, most 2nd etc... If there is still tie it is decided by the score in the last race, the next-to-last race and so on ... It can not be more easy and fair than that.

John, to answer your questions:

1. Discards - Distribution of race scores is much closer in SHRS than in HMS. In SHRS you have always scores 1-20 why in HMS you may have 2,3,1,56,36,17 ... so that problem may be bigger in HMS than in SHRS
2. Redress - Giving redress with average scores of all races is only one of the option who redress can be given (and actually probably the last option that should be used). Other options are
- points for the place were boat was in the moment of incident (if incident occured close to the finishing line)
- average points for races on that day
- average points for final round only
- average points for all races without discrded ones
- avreage points for all races including discarded ones
All this is covered by the RRS and it depends on circumstances so I see no any major problem in awarding redress with SHRS, while it is again bigger problem to use average points calculation in HMS

[Hiljoball]

Hi Zoran,

There is little point is discussing the merits of SHRS vs HSM - We each have our opinions.

I do not have a problem with someone promoting a different system for consideration for use at World and Continental Championships.

I do have a big problem with the wording of the motion that seeks to replace HMS with SHRS - ie mandate the use of this alternative system.

HMS has evolved over about 30 years and has become a stable and effective heat management and scoring system. SHRS is largely unknown and unproven outside of your own country. To consider using SHRS for our most important regattas requires more exposure and experience and demonstration of acceptability in more countries at major regional events. That is why I promote voting against this motion.

John

[Zoran]

Hi John

Our proposal is to use SHRS on World and Europeans championship as these are IOMICA events administered by the IOMICA Class Championship Rules while we cannot and do not want to deal with any other racing system that may be used on national and lower level.

[Bruce Andersen]

Therein lies the rub

[Harry Drenth]

After reading all the posts on this subject and the feedback from Roger Stollery and Henry Farley I would like share with you my view on the matter.

I read that some of you have their doubts about the concept of a qualifying round and final round. Over the last months we, Sailing.Today, have analysed a lot of full size sailing events.

Last August we were involved in the scoring of the Laser 4.7 Worlds and Laser Worlds under 21. Both events use the “qualifying round / final round” race system. During the qualifying round all competitors were daily split in multiple fleets of equal sizes. The basis for the split is the overall results at the end of the day. Allocation is done based on the A B C C B A algoritm. So place 1 goes to A, 2 to B, 3 to C, 4 to C, 5 to B, etc.
After the qualifying rounds the sailors were split into Gold, Silver, etc. fleets for the final round.

This race system is the most commonly used system for one design classes including the Olympic classes. And it works fine. Only more pressure for the race committee because they have to publish the new fleets before a certain time on the evening before the next race day.

Here you never hear any discussion about the system itself, only about the time publishing the new fleet schedule. Yes there has been discussions about the medal race(s) for Olympic classes. A couple of years back the ISAF experimented with various concepts for the medal race. Nowadays in most classes using a medal race it is common to have only one medal race in which double points are used: place 1 get 2 points, place 2 gets 4 points and so on.

Comparing SHRS with the commonly used system for one design classes there are 2 differences. SHRS is allocating the fleet based on the result in the last race instead of the overall ranking.
Secondly re-allocation is done after each race. Reason why re-allocating after each race isn’t done in big boat sailing is pure for practical reasons. Sailors would have to come ashore to find their new fleet and fleets are allocated to a race area. It would take too much time to go ashore, reorganize and run the next race because normally it takes at least 30 minutes to sail from ashore to the race area.

Bottom line from a race system perspective I don’t see why we can’t use this type of system for radio sailing.

One of the discussions was about the points from the qualifying round. Normally these points are counted in the total points. However special rules are also applied. For example during the 29-er Worlds 2015 only the position after the qualifying round was counted in the final score and not the qualifying results themselves. These points couldn’t be discarded. So position 1 in the ranking after the qualifying round would get 1 point in addition to his score in the final round and this score can’t be discard.

There can be a specific way of calculating discards. During the Laser Worlds it was decided that max 1 discard could be taken in the final round. This gives a lot of flexibility to the race committee.

Then there is the discussion about a fleet board.
I have worked out two examples how a fleet board can operate.

First option is to leave the fleets on the fleet board as it is and only reorder the competitors in a heat in finishing order. You can show on the right hand side of the ranking position to which fleet the competitor moves in the next race. You have to reorganize the board after each round.



Second option is to place the finished fleet directly on the board. In that case you need additional space on the bottom side to park the competitors for the heats which did not sailed yet.
The board is reorganized after each individual race. Following example shows the fleet board after each individual race.



Handling a manual fleet board takes in both methods a significant amount of time. However the next individual race is not depending on the fleet board. The only critical moment is between 2 race rounds. So that is a point of attention.

Financial impact on events.
Let’s make a financial equation. Roger Stollery states that 20 boats per heat has become over the years more or less the standard for major events without a real problems.
This means that:
1. when you remain to an event with 5 fleets compared to HMS you can invite another 24 sailors. For the last Worlds in the US this would have generated an additional 13.125 USD! Be aware that the costs more or less remain the same.
2. when the event budget remains the same then the entry fee could be lowered with 125 USD to 400 USD! This makes the event more attractive to sailors.
3. when the number of entries remains to 76 competitors, 4 fleets of 19 boats can be used which means that each competitor would have sailed at least 6 races more (32 races instead of 26) which is 1 additional race per day. And I would say at least since we had several delays due to protests involving promotion / demotion. During these protest hearings there is no sailing possible and everyone is waiting. SHRS eliminates this delay.

Quality of an event.
Sailors traveling from far to major events want to get value for their money and 1,5 hour effective sailing on a 8 hours event day is not much. It means 6,5 hour waiting!

So increasing sailing time will make events more attractive and more attraction will generate more competition in the local competitions to qualify for such an event.

SHRS offers, in contrast to HMS, the possibility to sail on more than one course comparable to full size sailing.
This means that you can race at least the double number of races.
In the Netherlands we once sailed the Micro Magic nationals simultaneous on 3 courses. Although it is doable this will have significant impact on the race committee and jury activities

Scoring software
SHRS is more or less comparable to race systems used for full size sailing. This means that the majority of the scoring system used for sailing can be used. So there is no need for specialized scoring software.

Conclusions.
SHRS offers advantages over HMS and bring the radio sailing sport closer to full size sailing which is an advantage when talking to the full size sailing community.
This could help to bring our sport closer to this community in trying to bring fresh people to our sport.

To avoid lots of discussions I would like to propose to allow both systems for major events. Then it is up to the event organization to decide which system they want to use.
The event organization is in the end responsible and accountable for the event and financial budget!

I hope this brings some clarity and new insights to the race system / scoring matter.

Harry Drenth