HAL's Race Results Bulletin

In my last email I mentioned that I am working on a new version of HAL's Race Results. It is now ready for beta testing.

If you enjoy trying new things, you can download it from the web site. It won't interfere with your current installation of HAL's Race Results, which you can continue to use as normal. If you wish to wait until Mk.2 is completely tested before trying it, please ignore this email.

While it looks rather different, the Mk.2 program is in fact completely compatible with the Mk.1 version. It can read and write Mk.1 archive files, so you can try it out on your own data.

The new program has a number of extra features. You can set the weight of individual races in a series. You could set higher weight for medal races or long-distance races, for example. When calculating the series score for each boat these races have their points multiplied by a weighting factor that you supply. You can mark races as non-excludable. When calculating series scores the program will always include these races, even if a boat’s score in that race would otherwise be one of her discards. You can apply time penalties to boats in handicap races. These penalties can either be a percentage of the elapsed time, or a given number of seconds. You can put your own logo on all printouts.

And the best news is that the program remains completely free. Just download it and try it out. But don't use it for anything important until we have finished testing it. Still use the Mk.1 version for all your production work.

I look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions.

Happy sailing, Peter Hopford HAL's Race Results