I'm a member of both forums. In terms of ease of use, I won't favor one over the other, and I really appreciate Damons efforts to keep this site alive simply for the technical content. However, if it was merged with thebeachcats.com, we would make it work. The one thing I've always appreciated about this site is a lot of the top guys would come here and post advice and ask questions of fellow racers, without reading through some of the more mundane topics. I suspect that is what kept those guys coming back here. The downside is we have a bit of a split in knowledge, with beginners overwhelmed or unaware of this forum, and experienced racers ignoring the other. So it could be good for our community as a whole to merge the two, but we also must respect the White's family wishes in this regard.

Now onto SCHRS...

Mark lays out all he details. I will speak from practice. I have run results in both rating systems with no net difference between them. However, SCHRS offers an equitable rating system when modifications come into play. For example, this let one of our former F16 sailors race his boat in 1 up mode with main and jib and compete fairly. His rating ended up being a touch higher than a Nacra I20; he ended up finishing a touch behind the well sailed I20's on a good night and would often correct in front but equally often not. I won't say he was ecstatic about his number (behind used to the Portsmouth handicap system that just assigns a very simple modifier to your rating, no matter how much sail area you add), but I think it made for fair racing without any additional racing statistics required-statistics that would never come. The bottom line is it allows someone to build a line honors boat and race it fairly in a handicap fleet, or make modifications to their existing class boat and race it fairly under handicap without relying on a one size fits all modifier.

There are several other things SCHRS brings to the table. One is a high amount of global race data,primarily French, but they do take input from European events, Texel, and our U.S SCHRS committee. This mitigates the issue that was happening in Portsmouth whereby the top guns would all be racing I20's, that boats rating would get driven low and once the top guys were out of the class the rating would state low as there wouldn't be enough statistical data to correct it out for what a more average team could do against the other average teams.

Second, this rating system is managed by a French committee, they do it well and alleviate the burden on the U.S catamaran fleets to maintain their own rating system (Portsmouth for cats is almost a decade old).

Third, it is free, completely open source and easy to use.

Fourth, and most importantly, it seriously cut back on rating conversations at the bar.


Last edited by samc99us; 01/29/18 12:06 PM.
F18 Infusion