The website has a scrolling ‘news feed’ of items (see below) listed in date order, most recent first. You might prefer to access information from the general list of topics shown under “Categories” which appear to the right or beneath the ‘news feed’ depending on what device you are using. There is also a “search bar” facility, plus you can subscribe by email. If you’d like a demonstration sail, please click the Trial Sail item on the main menu bar above.
A competitor holding a Standard Redress Award will, …not unreasonably,… at some time towards the end of the event check the results table and see what points improvement he/she received in the impacted race.
Remember that Standard Redress awarded points can keep changing as future results arrive.
In the excitement of the moment, if it looks like the redress has not been applied per the Race Committee decision there’s going to be questions !!!!
However, not everyone will remember (experience speaking!) that before the redress is calculated and applied at the defined time, there is one final test to be completed…… “Is the awarded Redress score better/worse than the competitor scored in race itself.” The idea is that as the redress is a result that floats.changes over time, it may come out worse than the competitor actually scored.
In this case, the Scorer should not apply the redress.
TIP : the Scorer’s issue can become how to quickly show any competitor that Standard Redress has been considered but NOT applied because it failed the “BETTER/WORSE than” test. Our suggestion is that if the existing race score is to be left unchanged, it is actually entered in to the system with RDGfix, but at the same value as before. That way, a querying competitor can just quickly glance at the score table and see that the full redress test was applied – and not ask for it to be calculated all over again!!
A lot of you clearly know about our downloadable collection of beginner radio sailors’ transmitter manuals. There have been around 2000 downloads now – we have FlySky, Futaba, Spektrum and Radiomaster in there. By the way, the Radiomaster manual on this list is by far the most popular. Given that we estimate there are only 19,000 radio sailors in the world (says AI !!), we think that 2000 download number is pretty interesting.
During the build up to the IOM Worlds, some mind boggling GBR talent put its mind to work to see if advanced features could be found on transmitters that would give the competitors a little competitive edge. The idea became to make three different radio sailing transmitter websites (Radiomaster, Futaba, Spektrum) and charge readers a nominal amount to subscribe to generate some income for the IOM Worlds.
A good idea… but we just ran out of runway and had a thousand other pieces of prep to complete. So we never got around to the monetised subscription idea. We’ve still got the manuals websites though.
For the basic radio sailors’ transmitter manuals, the easiest way to find them is to find the list of “Categories” on this website and select “Transmitter Manuals”. Alternatively use the website’s “Search” bar.
As to the three ‘advanced radio sailing transmitter’ websites, they are now online and available for free. To find them, just click on “RADIOS” on the menu bar of this website and you should find the three of them available there.
(A4 sized iPad Pro receiving score sheets fromThe Finish Line. Note this means you automatically have backup images of all your heat score sheets as they come in. Safely stored in your WhatsApp group.)
You cannot get half way through the Worlds, then lose all your data.
It maybe will surprise the uninitiated path you maybe spend more time “backing up” than you do entering scores. It’s a big deal.
We held three levels of race data:-
1/ On USB sticks (double ended USB-C and USB2, so you can plug into just about anything), we had our Current Data. Keep this folder neatly filed inside subfolders as you go.
2/ On the hard disk of our HMS primary lap top, we held our first level of data backup.
3/ The hard disk would automatically back up (if MS Cloud was working!) into OneDrive. All scorers and Officers were authorised to access the cloud folders.
We had two times that we did backup processing.
1/ At the end of every heat (so about 3x an hour) we would backup the three device layers above, being very strict about naming conventions. (more on that later)
2/ At the end of every race, as A heat had been entered, we would send a set of backups out via email to all the scorers and Officers in case of a proper disaster.
Naming Conventions :-
As we had different scorers on data entry duty each session , it was important that we all used the same naming convention and backup routine. We used a great concept from Andrew Crocker who was the Scorer at Gladstone.
the current heart was always named “current heat” and not by its heat number.
as we saved the backup, it would be named “heat 3b” , for heat b race 3 for example –the same in all layers of storage.
for extra security against gremlins, we wanted to build in a fresh close/reopen of excel as we proceeded.
Were found the quickest most foolproof way for heat backups was
1/ While in “current heat” , hit the little purple diskette icon (“save”) at the top of the excel spreadsheet
2/ Select “save as” and change the name from. “current heat” to “backup heat Nx” eg 3a, as you go. Save in the USB, and then on the hard disk.
3/ At this point your live spreadsheet is called “backup R3d” for example. Not what you want, so CLOSE excel completely and then go and find “current Heat” and re-open it. You are now ready to score again with a hopefully fresh excel.
If it is the end of a race (end of heat A), do all that, then email via outlook your “backup heat Nx” file to a list of the scorers and Officers. Your disaster copy – that should be your “Get Out of Jail” card if everything blew up.
Datchet Radio Sailing - Making It All Much Easier !! 