Handicap Changes from 1 April

[Bob Carter]

The observant will have noticed that the RYA changed the handicaps of our boat in the recent 2018 revisions. The changes were from 931 to 927 for the Standard mode and from 894 to 904 for the Sprint 15 Sport. These numbers are too close in the view of the committee and will result in a significant advantage to the Sport mode.
The committee has agreed do the following to maintain fair racing:
Adopt the RYA PN of 927 for the Standard Sprint 15 (changed from 931)
And retain 894 for Sprint 15 Sport from last year and not adopt the new RYA PN of 904
We have much data which shows that the correct difference between these handicaps should be in the range of 3.5%-4.0% and the above action achieves this (3.69%). Additionally the RYA has higher race results (391) and confidence in the Standard Sprint 15 PN than they do for the Sprint 15 Sport PN(129 race results).
The Great Lakes Handicapping committee has also set the handicaps in line with our recommendation. This means that handicaps at Grafham, Rutland and for the Sailjuice Winter Series will be the same as at our Class events.

[Bob Carter]

An update for 2019.
The RYA have just revised the PN for the standard Sprint 15 from 927 to 926 for 2019.
They have left the Sport mode PN unchanged at 904.
I propose that for Sprint 15 Class events the Class adopt the 926 PN for the Standard mode but retain the handicap of 894 for the Sport mode which is consistent with the last 2 years. For the rationale please see the earlier posts.
Regards
Bob

[Jenny Ball]

Hi Bob

Thanks for this. I have included this in the guide we share with event hosts so that SIs can reflect these PYs accordingly.

Jenny

[Liam]

I have updated this site to reflect it and will suggest Shanklin does the same.