What are people's thoughts on the minimum number of races required to count for a series high point championship.
The Endurance and Harken series require 2/3 of the events (4 out of 6).
This seems like a high threshold to meet. How many racers actually compete in 4 events of any sort during the season? I argue that many racers know before hand that they will not commit to 4 of (eg buoy) type races and so the series high point is irrelevant to them from the beginning. Secondly, if participation in the series (as determined by the number of qualifiers) is low... is the series meaningful?
It seems to me that if no more then 1/2 of the events were counted in the Endurance or Harken series, you might be able to generate interest by including a larger number of sailors into the series and that might persuade a sailor to go out and compete in the 4th regatta in an effort to improve their series standing.
Sometimes a standard of 1/2 of the events could also be unrealistic. If the median numbers of events that people choose to do or are actually able to do is just 4 events a year. ... a series that insists on 5 of the 10 races scheduled in order to qualify won't have much appeal to the bulk of the fleet.
It seems to me that you have to balance the number of trophies deep with the actual activity of sailors in the fleet with the number of events to qualify for a successful series. (EG balance the incentives with real world participation while maintaining standards of excellence.)
I am interested in hearing everyone’s opinion
Take Care
Mark
Mark,
Perhaps you're confusing a cold mid-western state with a warm southern one but asking sailors to attend 4 regattas is pretty meager in my opinion. I just went through a stint of 9 straight weekends and raced against several of the same teams at most of them. I think the Harken Race series is freakin' awesome...no need to detract. If the sailors have a hard time getting to four regattas a year then they will certainly have a difficult time being competitive in this series anyway.
The fact that a major sponsor has stepped up to offer a significant and visible trophy for a local series is fabulous and has me thinking about driving to Florida for at least four regattas to compete (and that's an 8-12 hour one way drive each time)! Why are you so negative?
Ditto, Jake.
I think Jake made a great point, in Florida we sail year round. One of our first decisions we had to make was how to narrow down the number of races to only 6. If you look at the races in Florida, there are many more both distance and buoy races and regattas.
When we first started discussing the series, we were actually thinking of more races, not less, but decided to limit it to 6 so more people could qualify.
When a series gets to the point where you only have to race a couple races the entire year, Im not sure its worth the effort to even put the series together.
Check out the series schedule: http:/
the races are very evenly spread out through the year, and switch between the Endurance and Harken series. You could qualify by sailing in 4 of the 6 races in one series, and have MONTHS between races.
If thats not enough time off you need to throw your couch away!! As Team Morada says "Adventure Does Not Come to the Couch!"
Brian
Hello Jake,
Not trying to be negative here... I am sure you have had a series in the past (probably without a named sponsor)and have some idea of how much racing your fleet is up for. My question is: Is 2/3 of the events realistic? I am not bashing the notion of a series. Why did you set it up the way you have?
Basically, how many sailors will compete in the series as opposed to sail one or two events of the series. For example: The Hobie Div 11 16 fleet is one of the most active fleets in the country. They score the best 5 of 8 regattas. (2/3)... With 36 competitors only 6 competed in 5 events. In CRAC, we see the same results. Most of the sailors don't compete in 2/3 of the events in the series (For us basically all events in the region count towards the series). We scored 4 of 9 events this year to include a reasonable portion of the sailors.
Would you not spark more interest in a series if a sailor thought that they had a reasonable chance of qualifying?
Take Care
Mark