Fleet 50 Championship Series
Scoring Rules

Russ Roberts (Russell.A.Roberts@juno.com) is our scorer and can explain things you don't understand.

Appendix A of the Racing Rules of Sailing including rule A9 applies to the scoring of our Spring, Fall, and Championship series.

The changes to these rules made below are intended to promote participation in PRSA races and generate fair and fun competition.

Championship Series

Eligibility

To qualify for the championship series you need to be a member of PRSA and Lightning Fleet 50, and to be a good fleet citizen (that is, do RC or another service for PRSA and the fleet).

Races in the Series

Every race in the Potomac Cup, PRSA Spring Series (except the Potomac Cup day), PRSA Spring Regatta, Leukemia/President's Cup, and PRSA Fall Series counts and counts equally towards the annual fleet championship series.

(The purpose is to promote participation in our host club's events and our own Potomac Cup.  The Dixie District has a Purnell Cup that promotes traveling to other Dixie District regattas.  The CBYRA has a high point award that promotes participation in events at clubs affiliated with CBYRA which includes PRSA, SSA, SMSA, RBSA.  ILCA has an intersectional trophy hat promotes traveling across districts.)

Spring & Fall Series

These series are set up by PRSA.  However, each fleet scores the series and determines the winners from their fleet.

We score each race and use the same throw out criterion as we do for the championship series. 

To qualify in the series you need to have sailed 50 percent of the races.  Of course, you also need to be a member of PRSA and Lightning Fleet 50.

Byes and average score redress in the Spring and Fall Series

At a meeting for the start of each season, the skippers in the fleet can choose to take certain Sundays in the Spring & Fall Series as byes or to allow skippers who attend other regattas or Lightning events to get an average score redress for that day.  

The Potomac Cup always gets a bye.

For 2004, the SSA No Gas, the SMSA Small Boat Invitational, and the SSA Frigit Digit get average score redress.

For 2003, no other regattas or Lightning events get an average score redress.

For 2002, the only average score redress was be given to skippers attending the Dixie District Championships in Fishing Bay.

For 2001, average score redress was given to skippers who attended Lightning Labs on June 2 & 3 at the new Havre De Grace fleet.  Average score redress was given to the first of either the Frigit Digit Regatta or the Borderline Regatta a skipper attended during the Fall Series.

Special Rules That Apply To Each Race

If you sail short handed and finish normally, you get your finish position +1.

If you were scored DNS, DNF, OCS, DSQ, RET, you get the number of qualified finishers  + 1 on a Spring or Fall Series races and number of registered fleet 50 boats + 1 for regattas.   Qualified finishers are all finishers less OCS, various DSQs, and RAF.   Also included among finishers or registered fleet 50 boats are boats represented on RC who are getting redress for serving.

DNS: All boats that have checked in, either on shore or on the water, will be scored DNS if they did not race.  Boats that have not checked in will not be counted as having been on the water.

If you weren't there or registered, i.e. DNC, you get the number of boats on the water that Spring or Fall Series day + 2 or number of registered fleet 50 boats + 2 for regattas.

Boats on the water that day include skippers on the race committee and, if the skipper isn't there, boats represented by two or more people on the race committee.  

For example, if 6 boats start, 1 doesn't start but is on their way and starts the next race, 1 skipper is the RC chair, and 2 crew from another boat are on RC then boats on the water that day is 9.  If one of the 6 starters doesn't finish, they get a 6.   The late boat gets a 6.  Boats that stayed home get an 11. 

Throwouts, Ties, Misc.

Throw out the largest 20% (rounded to nearest whole number) of each boat's scores before adding them up.   (This number was chosen to give you enough throwouts to deal with the inevitable conflicts between sailing and real life and to even give you the opportunity to sail in non-PRSA regattas, but not so many that you won't try to participate as much as you can or compete for the prize!) 

While ties in the final scores are very unlikely, they would be resolved in the usual way specified in the Racing Rules of Sailing, i.e. # of 1sts, if still tied, # of 2nds, etc.

The boat is scored, not the skipper.  This means that any of the regular crew of the boat can steer.  Joint owners can trade-off steering.  But if a skipper gets a new boat mid season, then the scores follow the skippers.   (A single boat might become two boats after a co-skipper buys his or her own boat.)

*** If you bring a hotshot aboard and hand them the tiller so that can learn something from him or her, you should tell the scorer in advance and ask to get the average of other races you sail in the series.

Average score redress for race committee duty

If you serve on the RC during the PRSA Spring or Fall series races, for those races you get your average score for the other Spring or Fall series races, respectively, after the 20 percent throwout.  (Your are neither helped or hurt by doing your RC duty.)

If you serve on RC at the PRSA Spring Regatta, you get the average of your scores in the PRSA Spring Series after the 20 percent throwout.  (This is a good deal because the turnout at that Regatta is likely to be larger than the average turnout on a Sunday.  Chances are that you'd get a higher score if you sailed than if you did RC duty.)  Similarly, if you serve on RC at the President's Cup you get get the average of your fall series races after the 20 percent throwout. 

If you serve on the RC but you give your boat to your crew to race, be sure to inform the scorer, in advance, whether you want to take the average score in your other races or the score your crew earns.  If you don't inform the scorer, he'll assume your crew's score counts.

Race Committee Duty

THE ARITHMETIC:  Based on Fleet 50 size, it is responsible for 6 to 7 days of RC duty on the river for PRSA and 2 to 3 days of RC duty for the Albacore fleet who will do RC for the Potomac Cup for a total of 9 days.  Each RC requires about 6 people, including the RC chair, which is equivalent to the crew of about two boats.  If we had 18 active boats, each boat could count on doing 1 day of duty, that is, providing 3 people for RC on 1 day.  More realistically each boat should count on providing the equivalent of about 1.5 days of duty.  Incidentally, you can provide people to do RC duty on your behalf and still sail your boat.