Why Handicap
All Handicaps are fundamentally unfair as they aim to encourage slow boats and skippers with limited skills to come racing. There is little that is more discouraging to a crew at the back of the field with the knowledge that there is little they can do but come last in every race. A successful handicap system is one that allows owners with the slowest boats to compete against all boats whilst presenting an achievable challenge to the owners of fast well sorted boats.
Club racing is the best way to get to know your boat and work out what works best. If you have never done club racing before, then please make the effort to join in.
Current FSMBC handicap
Will have an initial handicap rating issued by Byron. Thereafter yachts race elapsed times will be used to calculate a Performance Based Handicap. PBH’s will be recalculated at the end of season for use in following seasons races.
If you have never raced at our Club before, apply to the Sailing Sec, for a 20 point handicap bonus, to be applied during your first race series.
If you wish to find out how the calculation is done, please speak to Charlie Coxwell.
If your boat does not have a Byron handicap rating you may either accept the rating issued by the Sailing Committee or apply direct to Bryon to have one issued to your boat. The Sailing Committee will always give priority to Byron rating.
Useful links:
To apply for a Byron handicap: http://www.byronsoftware.org/boats/calcrequest.htm
To view Current full Byron handicaps: http://www.byronsoftware.org/boats/byboat.htm
How to apply a Handicap.
A yacht with an elapsed time of 60 minutes and a handicap of 1200 multiplies their elapsed time by (1000/Handicap number) to find out their corrected time.
i.e. 60 x 1000/1200 = 50
So a yacht with a Handicap rating of 1200 finishing in 60 minutes will have a corrected time of 50 minutes.
Current Handicaps ratings
Click the link below to view the race time differences based on each hour of racing.
As an example, two similar Moody 27 boats (Ipanema & Kashiya) that have the same Byron Handicaps will end up with a different handicap (PBH) that is based on their historical race performance.
e.g. For 2019, although their Byron Handicap is both 1133, their PBH is:-
- Charlie Coxwell – Ipanema – 1065
- John Gunn – Kashiya – 1139
This results in Ipanema having to better Kashiya’s time by 4.4min per hour of Elapsed race time. This now takes in the differences in sail, prop type, use of spinnaker, setup etc between the two boats.