That would mean that John would still be the rightful winner in your example because with the exception for the single throw-out he finished ahead of you more consistantly then you did. Otherwise he can never have less points overall after the throw-out.

In fact not having the throwout would actually favour the lesser skilled crew. A noticeable superior crews race can then be wrecked by a single hick-up (outlier) that he can sustain for any number of reasons that are outside of his controll or further unrelated to his skills.

Example :

Crew 1 does : 1st , 1st, 1st, 1st and 10th because some dummy tacks on the startline and pins of portion of the fleet between "a rock and a hard place"

crew 2 does : 3rd 3rd 3rd 3rd and 1st. as this crew was starting down the line in the last race and missed the pile up.

Now you are saying that crew 2 is the rightfull winner because he sailed more consistantly ?


And this example also explains why sailing has rules like this while track events don't. That is because at a track event you get your own lane or you are the only one on the pitch. Even in car racing your get your own starting position with well defined spacing or right of way. With sailing you don't have any of these rules. Pretty much the start is a brawl and you are criscrossing eachothers bows and sterns by definition and not by chance. Sailing in general is a much more open game then any motor(cross) event or other sports event like athletics.

Wouter