Transpacific Yacht Race

[endoftheroad]

Excuse my ignorance but I have no clue about yacht racing.
Below are the results of a Westsail 32 for this years race.
My question is, what does "number 4 official" mean?
In fact, I'm not even sure what a "division" means.
Thanks for your patience as I've looked for a "dummies" explanation online already with no luck.
Thanks

2014 Singlehanded Trans Pac - Gary Burton and Elizabeth Ann has finished*1st*in his division and 4th official!! *Elapsed time 16:07:19:38 - corrected to 11:10:8:18 Way to go Gary!!*

[svTOTEM]

It isn't "4th official", but rather, 4th overall - meaning amongst all boats in all classes.

[endoftheroad]

Okay....
So does 4th overall mean that something was converted or credited to make things equal to say winning against a sleek fast 40 footer?

Or was this boat the 4th boat to literally reach the finish line?

[Mark1977]

I take it as 4th boat to literally cross the line.

[JPA Cate]

End of the road,

There is something wrong with that reference. There was one year, prior to 1989, when a Westsail 32, seriously prepared for that off the wind race, did finish well up. They were ecstatic... There are different divisions in that race, for the faster and slower boats, which have performance handicaps to "equalize" them. Fourth overall on adjusted time does not mean the same as "fourth to finish".

But I am quite sure this did not happen in 2014, as that was when the wikipedia entry was updated, and am sure I would have heard if another Westsail had a fantastic finish in that race. For one, all the full keel, heavy displacement enthusiasts on CF would be posting threads about it.

Ann

[endoftheroad]

Thanks Ann,
If anyone knows of a brief summary for how racing works please provide the link so I'm not forever ignorant.

[roverhi]

Technically there was no Transpac race this year. The Transpac race to Hawaii is held in off years and goes from LA to Honolulu. The races in even years are the Pacific Cup from SF to Kaneohe Bay on Oahu and the Single Handed TransPac from SF to Hanalei Bay on Kauai. There is also a race from Victoria, BC to Maui though not sure what years that's held.

Typically get a Westsail 32 in the SH TransPac that finish in about the middle of the pack on elapsed time but do way better on corrected time for rating. The 4th place finish you are referring to is undoubtedly corrected for Handicap. Westsails aren't fast in iight air especially to windward into choppy seas. The PHRF racing rating are typically derived from inshore around the buoys races in lower wind conditions and emphasize windward ability. The W32 benefits from that rating on open ocean races that are usually reaches in higher winds where a W32 will sail to its waterline potential.

[John A]

I was able to find this.

A Brief Look at 6 Different Approaches to Handicapping today's US Fleet | US Sailing

The transpacific or any race from the West coast to Hawaii is so dependent on the route you chose to take advantage of the conditions you're sailing toward that handicapping sometimes makes little difference about the outcome of the race.

[gamayun]

I was in Kauai for the single-handed TransPac. The Pacific Cup sailed from SF to Kaneohe, leaving about a week after the single-handers. The VicMaui race was also held this year, but I don't know anything about it. Gary Burton on Elizabeth Ann, did the SHTP in 2014. That reference is to 4th overall. More info on the SHTP race is here: Singlehanded TransPac | San Francisco to Hanalei Bay – The 19th Edition. Race results are here: https://www.jibeset.net/show.php?RR=...=r101&TYP=html.

It's my understanding there's a lot of angst/debate while trying to get the ratings set....

[endoftheroad]

Thanks everyone for the great help and links.

[svTOTEM]

End of the road – racing is either one design, meaning identical boats (J/24, laser, etc), or using a handicap system. A handicap system attempts to compile various boat metrics (displacement, LWL, sail area, and so many more numbers) to a rating (a number representing performance).
Ratings are an attempt to factor away design difference so that race results reflect sailing skill/performance, not the yacht designers. After a race, the “actual time” a boat takes to complete is adjusted using the rating number and race distance, to calculate “corrected time”. There are a number of different rating systems, all with good intentions – and all flawed to some degree.

[cal40john]

Originally Posted by roverhi

Technically there was no Transpac race this year. The Transpac race to Hawaii is held in off years and goes from LA to Honolulu. The races in even years are the Pacific Cup from SF to Kaneohe Bay on Oahu and the Single Handed TransPac from SF to Hanalei Bay on Kauai. There is also a race from Victoria, BC to Maui though not sure what years that's held.

Typically get a Westsail 32 in the SH TransPac that finish in about the middle of the pack on elapsed time but do way better on corrected time for rating. The 4th place finish you are referring to is undoubtedly corrected for Handicap. Westsails aren't fast in iight air especially to windward into choppy seas. The PHRF racing rating are typically derived from inshore around the buoys races in lower wind conditions and emphasize windward ability. The W32 benefits from that rating on open ocean races that are usually reaches in higher winds where a W32 will sail to its waterline potential.

Usually the ratings are modified to try to account for higher wind and mostly downwind course for these races.

[Ex-Calif]

Divisions are usually defined to denote starts for staggered start races attempting to group boats with similar speeds in each start. You could have a Sportsman's Division, Cruising Division etc. Divisions are often broken into classes. J24 is a "one design" class. One design as noted sets rules to make the boats identical in terms of the rules. "Cruising boat' could be a class. This could be any boat that fits the class definition. i.e. it may define the need to have, berths, water system and "the sails normally used for cruising" (can't bring race sails and spinnakers.)

The different handicapping systems allow boats of different designs to race "on par" - IRC is a pretty stringent set of classes and IRC A is usually a "premier" or prestige class where the big boys play.

For Regattas they will have several definitions of winning.

Place on water - pure fastest boat there type stuff.
Class position - First in IRCA or first in cruising boats
Overall Regatta - Some regattas will limit the classes competing. It would be rude to the rich guy if a Westsail 32 won the transpac overall champion because he has an awesome handicap. Regattas like to attract the rich guys.

So your Westail could have been 4th overall and maybe first in class but 40th on the water.

A common rating system because there are such a large number of boats is PY (Portsmouth Yardstick) In a perfoect world clubs send their regatta data in and it continues to add to the database. Because boats perform differently in different condidionts some race committees will modify PY handicaps say if the regatta conditions are on average much stranger or much weaker.

Portsmouth Yardstick | US Sailing

We did King's Cup in a Charter boat. We were in the cruising boat division, charter boat class. That is there were enough charter boats in the regatta for us to make up a whole class. In general committees would need 9 boats of similar pedigree to make a class. Although in the cruising division I think there was a "classic" class that had 3 boats. Sort of everyone got a trophy there - LOL...