HAL's Race Results - Scoring Made Easy

HAL Bug 81701 - Handicaps occasionally disappear from the Boat Register

Versions of HAL's Race Results that exhibit the bug: All up to and including 8.18
Symptoms. Some handicaps disappear from the Boat Register when the program is shut down and re-started. This is done on purpose by a routine designed to purge the handicap table of values that are not used in any result.
This behaviour is good most of the time, as it stops the database from getting cluttered with unused data that slows the system down, but it causes problems for classes that are only used for tandem series. Since tandem races are not recognised by the routine, it can remove handicaps that are used for their races.
How to reproduce the symptoms. Set up a new class, then set up a tandem series for it. Do not set up any real series for this class, just the tandem series. In the Boat Register, set several handicaps for a particular boat in this class, starting at different dates. Now close the program down completely and restart it. Some of the handicaps will have disappeared.
Work-around. Set up a dummy real series for the class, with one race starting before any of the other races in the database. For instance starting on 1 January. Put in a result for each boat in the class in the dummy race. This will lock the handicaps for the class so that they are retained.
Resolution. The problem is resolved in version 8.19.