MacGregorSailors.com

In order to assist the trailable division determine a half usable Class Basic Handicap (CBH), I intend to submit as many sets of racing results for Macs as I can. Further, I intend to back calculate what CBH the Mac would have needed to come equal with the CBH winner of the race. Not the first across the line, not the club applied handicap, but the CBH as determined by Yachting Australia winner.

What I need is
The Elapsed Time (ET) taken by the winning boat,
The Elapsed Time of the Macgregor (& which type), and
What type of boat the winning boat was.

From there I can work it all out. For the math heads (and I'm one) it go's like this;

Corrected Time = CT

CT = ET X CBH transforming to CBH = CT/ET

Making the Mac's performance for that race CBH = CT of the Winning Boat divided by the ET of the Mac.

The more results that I can get, the more statistically valid the derived CBH can be.

Based on the results so far, I have been performing in the CBH range of .54 to .57. Which is a long way from the .715 that Yachting Australia have us on.

Please do what you can to pass the results on to me.

Brian

I've been campaining Yachting Victoria for a while to get the Handicap adjusted.

I thought I was onto a winner when it got provisionally adjusted from 0.715 to 0.625.

I have since submitted a set of racing rules for the class on behalf of the upcoming Australian Macgregor Association. I had conversed with the President of the Trailable Committee a number of times and was feeling very confident that the handicap would be adjusted to something more realistic.

Monday night I had a phone call from the President of the Trailable Committee, informing me that the application had been squashed. As the committee was of the opinion that the currently published handicap must have been based on good solid data and the concept of making as bold an adjustment as I was after was just not going to happen.

The handicap will undergo review with all other handicaps within the next couple of months along with every other trailable class. This review is based on results submitted by member yacht clubs from races conducted during the year. This type of adjustement (if any) is only of a marginal type and will not address the large disparity that we now have.

I informed him that I was far from happy, and would await the outcome of the review. I also informed him that should the review not adjust our handicap sufficiently to give us a fair go, that I would be appealing the decision. Primarily my appeal will be based on the knowledge (from racing trailable yachts for some years) that the handicap currently published for th Macgregor cannot be correct as the handicap listed is older than the introductory date for the 26M. Further I will appeal on the basis that I believe that the onus of proof of the handicap rests with Yachting Victoria to verify where and how the handicap listed was derived.

One of the conditions to get a handicap allocated is that a set of racing rulks must be submitted from the class association. How can Yachting Victoria allocate a handicap, when we don't yet have an association? This is a line of questioning that was not received well.

My intent is to draft a letter to Yachting Victoria before the reviews are conducted, however I have learnt that I need to calm down prior to doing this, as an emotive letter gains no friends.

But what I really need is racing results.

Any racing results.

Currently the only results submitted are mine. A line of argument that Yachting Victoria have used is that this is only one sailors performance (intimating that I may be a mug sailor, which I'm not! )

So we need some Aussie Mac owners to get out ther and get some results on the board. Then send them into me quick.

My apologies to the cruising majority who must think I'm nuts.

Thanks

Brian

Hi Brian,

Looks like the MAC bashing goes all the way to the top in Yachting Victoria.

Sorry, can't help with the results.

Dirk

I'm a bit of a mug when it comes to racing Brian so this may be a stupid question. In setting the handicap in Australia must it be determined by a review of Australian race results in which Macs participate or can international results be used as comparative datasets in establishing the handicap benchmark?

Good work Brian and even though not a racer I support the need for establishing this.

Cheers

David

David,
far from a stupid question.

The Australian Handicap must be based on results acheived in Australia. I guessing that it is because by far the majority of trailable yachts available in Australia were built either here or in NZ. A case of comparing apples with apples

Really need some people to get out there and do some races. The more results the better statistical result.

I'm hoping that we can get a few Macs together at our Nationals in Nov on Lake Hume. As we'll have a large mix of other classes racing at the same time, which will help from a comparative point of view for handicapping (will also just be good to get together and share an ale or six). I'll start another thread on this soon.

Keep asking questions, that's how we learn.

Brian