Classes and race schedule

• The first thing to decide is whether to start a new database for this event, or to use an existing one.
  • If many of your own club boats will be taking part, it makes sense to use an existing database. You may want to set up a separate class for the event, though.
  • If this is a stand-alone event with few local boats, it makes sense to archive your current database and set up a new one (Maintenance / Archive Restore / Empty).
• As soon as the Notice of Race has been published you have enough information to fill in the Class Register and the Race Schedule.
• Think whether any tandem series would be useful, for instance to pick out a mini-series within the overall results, or to compute results for a sub-set of the boats in a Silver Fleet.
• Pay particular attention to the table of discards and to the scoring arrangements for non-finishers. Do the sailing instructions specify that boats scoring DSQ get more points than those that retire, for instance?
• Set up the switches that control what will be shown on printouts and web pages. Cruising boats usually like to see the boat name and owner, whereas dinghies often do not have a name and the helm is the most important identifier.
• Ensure that non-validated results will be shown as provisional (set Mark Provisional in Maintenance / Set-up).
• If you are going to provide the race team with start sequence print outs, make sure the relevant fields in the race schedule are correctly filled in.