This post is a light-hearted rant about sailing’s lax terminology.
Starting with “sailing”! Is it pottering or is it racing? For our purposes, it is that activity governed by the Racing Rules of Sailing excluding Appendices B, C, D and F. Obvious when you think about it!
More significantly, what’s a “class”? Is it a) a group of similar boats racing together, b) a type of boat such as a Solo or an Optimist, or c) an organisation representing a type of boat? All three are used from time to time.
And what, in the sailing world, is the name for that which others might call a competition. Candidates include series, regatta, meeting, open, championship and so on; even just “racing” as in evening racing. Each has its own subtle meaning but it would be helpful if there were one generic term that covers them all. Fortunately the RRS seems to have come to our aid. Prior to the 2020 edition it used the clumsy race or series. Subsequently it’s been (mostly) event even if an event happens to be a series!
Does this lack of uniformity matter or is it all part of the charm and mystique of our idiosyncratic yet wonderful pastime? The trouble starts when computers get involved (always the way, I hear you say). Computers like to have the same name for the same kind of thing wherever it is used. Actually, with a bit of effort, this can be worked around – take Sailwave and its variable column headings. The major issue is with documentation – how to describe processing a class when class means different things to different people?
SailEvent’s approach is to align, more or less, with Sailwave. So a class is a set of boats with the same design, either identical or conforming to a rule – Optimist, ILCA7, Fireball, J70. A fleet is a set of boats competing against each other, either all of the same class – a one-design fleet – or a mixture of classes – a handicap fleet.
When one or more fleets compete on one or more related occasions, SailEvent is with the RRS – that’s an event. It’s an event in HalSail too but a series in Sailwave. Ho hum.
Terminology is something of a hobbyhorse for the SailEvent team – we touch on it elsewhere - because we believe it’s important. Way back the RYA convened a meeting of sailing software developers and, among other things, asked us to address this very issue. It hasn’t happened! What do you think? There’s a comments box below...
Well done, Richard. The lack of an agreed terminology for sailing competitions has led to confusion for years. One division seems to be between dinghy racing and cruiser racing. Dinghies usually describe a group of boats that race against each other, either level or on handicap, as a fleet, whereas cruisers talk about a class, as in the start for the IRC1 Class will be at 10:30.
ReplyDeletePeter Hopford
This is an interesting and important point. We have also been wrestling with this (https://www.sailingclubmanager.com/results/fleets). Perhaps we can work together to establish a standard set of terminology and encourage all software providers and governing bodies to adopt the same.
ReplyDeleteJeremy Pocock
SailingClubManager.com
Interesting that the comments are from the sailing software community! Maybe it is only nerds like us who are vexed by this issue and the rest of the sailing world is happy with things the way they are, Or they don't read this blog!
ReplyDeleteMy view is that is the job of the ruling authorities, starting with World Sailing, to provide at least some guidelines or recommendations for the rest of us to follow as we see fit. That way software providers who comply can claim, rightfully, that they are just doing what the bosses say.
However Peter has drawn my attention to this recent RRS.org blog post https://www.racingrulesofsailing.org/posts/4871-question-of-terminology-when-all-boats-do-not-race-together. It contains definitions of class and fleet which don't align with Sailwave's and SailEvent's (which do align). Then it introduces terminology, like 'league', that I have never heard of in this context and goes on to speculate that there may well be localized variations.
Ho hum. But none of this is an argument against, say, World Sailing and/or national authorities showing some leadership.
Richard Creer
Sailing Club Software