How do I give a boat a scoring penalty?
Boats can be given four types of scoring penalties.
- SCP - for breaking a rule in Part 2 of the Racing Rules of Sailing.
The boat must accept a 20% scoring penalty under Rule 44.3 by displaying a yellow
flag.
- ZFP - Over the line (OCS) at the start under a Z flag regime. Penalised
20% under Rule 30.2.
- XPA - Exoneration Penalty after an arbitration
hearing.
- DPI - They were given a Discretionary Penalty under RRS L16.6 for
an offence such as failing to show a measurement certificate.
HAL's Race Results implements these rules by allowing the race officer to pick
a finishing status. The thing to remember is that a boat always gets the finishing
place she actually achieved. What changes in the event of her having a penalty is
the number of points she gets for that place. So it is important not to
try to give a penalty by altering her finishing place (or finishing time in the
case of a handicap race) but to set her finishing status to SCP, ZFP, XPA or DPI.
It is perfectly possible for a boat to accumulate more than one penalty. She might
have a ZFP and a SCP, resulting in a 40% penalty. Or she might have two SCPs and
a DPI of 10%, resulting in 50%. The actual penalty to be imposed can be entered
as a percentage after the status is chosen.
