Boat Handicaps
Here you will find the list of handicaps (Portsmouth Yardstick numbers) used to calculate race positions for the Adult and Child racing series. The yardstick numbers allow different classes of boats to be raced against each other: the aim is to cancel out the inherent advantages and disadvantages of each class of boats, and provide a common time that represents the skill of the sailor.
- Pico: 1258
- Laser 4.7: 1175
- Laser Radial: 1101
- Laser Standard: 1078
- Tera: 1470
- Optimist: 1646
- Laser Vago: 1170
- Laser Vago XD: 1000
- Dart 16: 872
- Lightning: 1148
The Calculation
Elapsed Time (Seconds) x 1000 / PY number = Calculated Handicap Time
- Convert all times into seconds
- Multiply the seconds by 1000
- Divide step 2 by the Boat Handicap (Portsmouth Yardstick)
- Repeat the process for all other boats
Example Calculation
If you were racing a Laser Radial and took 8 minutes 43 seconds to finish the race, the first thing required would be to convert the minutes into seconds. I.e. (8 x 60) + 43 = 523 seconds.
Next, we multiply 523 by 1000 and divide by the Laser Radial PY number (1101). I.e. 523 x 1000 / 1101 = 475.
This is now our calculated handicap time.
If another sailor was racing with you in an optimist and took 8 minutes 58 seconds to finish the race, the calculated handicap time would be: (8 x 60) + 58 = 538 seconds; 538 x 1000 / 1646 = 327.
As you can see from above, the Optimist has a lower calculated handicap time than the Laser Radial, giving it a better overall score. The racer with the lowest caculated handicap, wins!
