Points system ( comments )

[verytricky]

We were discussing the current points system, and how it seems to reward mediocrity and punish those who go fast enough to make a mistake...

Mess up one race and the season is finished, yet consistently finish second or third or fourth and you could win the championship..


So an idea was thought up:


Points are accumulated from a race from seperate activities in the race as follows:

Placings:
Win = 9 points
Second = 6 points
Third = 4 points
Fourth = 3 points
Fifth = 2 points
Sixth = 1 point

Number of boats:
1 point for every starting boat you finish ahead of in the race.
So if there were 8 starting boats, and you finished first, then you get 7 points for finishing ahead of 7 boats. If you finished eighth, you get nil points and if you finished seventh, you get 1 point etc..

The idea is winning a race with 10 boats gets more points than winning a race with 2 boats!



So: if 12 boats start the race:

winner gets 9+11 = 20 points
2nd gets 6+10 = 16 points
3rd gets 4+9 = 13 points
4th gets 3+8 = 11 points
5th gets 2+7 = 9 points
6th gets 1+6 = 7 points
7th gets 0+5 = 5 points
8th gets 0+4 = 4 points
9th gets 0+3 = 3 points
10th gets 0+2 = 2 points
11th gets 0+1 =1 points
12th gets 0+0 = 0 points


if 8 boats start the race:
winner gets 9+7 = 16 points
2nd gets 6+6 = 12 points
3rd gets 4+5 = 9 points
4th gets 3+4 = 7 points
5th gets 2+3 = 5 points
6th gets 1+2 = 3 points
7th gets 0+1 = 1 points
8th gets 0+0 = 0 points


If there is a race with just 3 boats:
winner gets 9+2 = 11 points
2nd gets 6+1 = 7 points
3rd gets 4+0 = 4 points



The object is to give greater reward to first and second place, and greater reward for a place in a race with more competition.



Additional thoughts included the ability to 'DROP' 2 results from the year from your points total, excluding the National Finals events. This would allow someone who wins most races to recover from a single mistake, or allow a team to decide that they wanted to miss Cowes for example and not loose the season because of this. Two results would usually be a single event..




Any comments on this?

[Ben]

Aside from the last paragraph, it's very similar to the points system UKOBA used to use for its championships.

Always seemed very fair to me.

[BluFin]

Thats what it used to be. before it went all daft with el 400 points.. UIM standard.

[CB1]

For once Mark i agree with you!!!! Well not on everything. The points system was changed to encourage teams to make the long trek to gib and has stayed that way. The uim scoring system works if it is used correctly ie 400 for a win then going down by 25% not 10%. So 400 win, 300 2nd etc.

[CB1]

The old ukoba system worked and imho i think we should return to it. The only difference with dropping races would be if 2 heats were run you could drop 1 from that event. If you could drop a whole event it would leave the race organisers not knowing till signing in how many teams would turn up.
It needs looking at for next year. Perhaps GM could do it?

[Burty]

We can drop 2 races per season in Ski racing, it allows for boat trouble or maybe a poor result, other commitments etc. Even in the world championships you take your 3 best results from the 4 races.
Also its done on a time ie. 1000points for the win then points gets less depending on how close 2nd is. Its an incentive to really push even if you are leading

[Jon Fuller]

Agreed, 'way back when', both UKOBA and the RYA had exactly that system for National racing, 9 points for a win, and a point for every 'starter' beaten in the race.

Worked perfectly. I never liked the newer system, and never understood why the change was needed anyway.

One of Dredge's many legacies?