Now this is a good one for the bar <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I'm in favour of discards. It is the case that John P beat me in very single race in which we both raced, and I'm sure that if he'd have made the rest of the races he'd have beaten me there as well. And none of John's no-shows were down to mechanical problems etc. In fact 9 out of 12 is a pretty good show for someone who turned up without a boat <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

At the end of the day, I'd rather have the results reflect how people sailed on the day. There are plenty of sports where you discard all but your best result (long/high jumping, throwing stuff etc.), and many tournament systems that allow you to recover from a bad first race, so it's not totally unique. I think the more fundamental question that you should be asking is why do we take a sample of 12 identical races rather than just one big one?

At the end of the day, it comes down to what makes people feel that the results are fair. If you score 11 1sts and a DNF due to a kit failure, the 2nd placer who steals the day is going to feel it's a bit of a hollow victory. But if you can't get your act together for at least 10 of the 12 races then you should start to lose out.

Paul