sausage said..
Interesting elimination system - I like how it works and gives everyone the same amount of racing too.
Day 2 was slalom racing. Fast and furious action. Elimination Round 1 comprised 4 Rounds of 4 Heats, each of sailors. Your sail number goes up on the board telling you what Heat you are in for Round 1. Races are run approximately 5 minutes apart and last about 3-4 minutes. A large board on the boat tells you waht heat is about to run. Red, yellow and green flags indicate how much time to the start. At a bout 1-2 minutes prior to each start the group of 8 begins to emerge and with 20 seconds to go they are all planing at full speed to the start line. Getting a good start is paramount to a good finish, but pushing to hard and the video footage will catch you go over early, as many did, race after race. Back on the shore between each Round (after each set of 4 Heats) sailors see where they placed by which Heat they are placed in. Heat 1 is the top eight, Heat 2 are sailors ranked 9-16, heat 3 sailors ranked 17-24 and heat 4 sailors ranked 25-32. It only gets more complicated when trying to describe how the ranking works, but everyone picks it up pretty quick and you know from your last race when you're going to be placed. However, sailors starting too early or being disqualified for some other reason can cause an unexpected re-shuffle of placings. After the final 4 Rounds of 4 Heats, all sailors are ranked and you have a provisional result. I'm sure all sailors knew they could do better and made silly mistakes, but the system works well and while at some times can be harsh, at others it see's you advance back up the ranks quite quickly. First two races were downwind M-shape, then the course was changed to figure of 8. All up, a great day of powered up racing with some of the best sailors in Australia (and a fair few from overseas)!
Hmmmm............ This system sounds VERY FAMILIAR!
I assume proper credit was given to it's author?
