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How to Use This Website

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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.

HMS – Scorers of the World Unite ….!!

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HMS, or rather HMS Excel, has served our sport really well. It is a great asset and it’s in all our interests to get the most fun and service from it that we can. For myself, I’ve used it at every event I’ve done scoring duty. From a design viewpoint, I adore it.

It does have some interesting foibles though. Little streaks of character that show through occasionally.

Why would MYA’s very stable and mature scoring system start throwing up errors which weren’t there when it was originally tested and launched? The answer, of course, is that between HMS and the laptop CPU processors are layer upon layer of Excel and Windows. They are changing and updating all the time.

There are some terrific User Guides – 2026 editions from GB especially. If you’ve not seen them, then print them out from MYA to keep. They are great pieces of writing, but don’t quite (for me) have enough on “common things that can go wrong”. I don’t know why we don’t have a little online User Noticeboard where we can post our hints and tips to share between Clubs. Otherwise what happens mostly for me is someone leans across my shoulder and says, “I don’t do it that way – have you tried this??….”

So – our “starter for five” tips ?? If you email us at the website with experiences and suggestions of your own, we can add them here. Here are my favourites:-

1/ Sorting

In number one position for me is sorting the score table.

Just sometimes ( 2 in a hundred?) you can glance at your score sheet and coincidentally notice the boats are not showing the correct sequence, but scores are correct.

I know that the spreadsheet says it will do a sort of the results when it prepares to “Display for Print”.

But it doesn’t about 2% of the time. Life carries on, but it’s pretty embarrassing when you print out a pile of results to hand around the bar and the finishers are not listed in the correct order.

All you need to do is get into the habit of clicking the blue sort button on column 1 (“Pos”) before you go to the print options. Do it as frequently as you like.

What’s the cause? I’ve no idea.

2/ White Screening

At a couple of Events, I have had the new Windows/11 laptop go into “white screen” with HMS Excel. Everything seems to lock up. Sometimes you can force Excel to quit, sometimes you can’t. Usually a full forced re-boot of the laptop is what you need.

We get the feeling it’s some little problem (shortage of storage for example?) that seems to accumulate within Excel as it remains open.

What to do?? Each time you finish scoring a heat:-

  • issue a save
  • close excel down using the big X
  • reopen a fresh excel ready to score the next heat.

I have scoring buddies who say it’s sufficient to close the spreadsheet (leaving Excel open) and then reopening the spreadsheet. …. Hmm not so sure. It takes the same amount of time to close Excel and reopen it afresh. I’d suggest do that.

What’s the cause? I’ve no idea.

3/ A single WDN/NSC/DSQ/RET Decision is to be Processed

– the HMS heat score table ending up out-of-points-sequence

Let’s face it, pretty frequently one is told about a single DSQ/NSC/WDN/RET decision AFTER you’ve entered the score sheet into HMS.

We all know to run WDN competitors as DNC until they drift down to bottom heat – and even then only when PRO and Board Manager agree – as it can drive a fleet reschedule decision to be evaluated.

Know now – this area can be hazardous…. At our Club, we have spent a longtime looking at these.

The great thing is ,if at your event, the score-entering is lagging slightly behind real life. If you’re right up to date with data entry, NSC/DSQ/RET/WDNs can arrive after you have entered the results from the score sheet.

a/ If you are running behind

the heat score sheet may show NSC/DSQ/RET/WDNetc in the middle of the list. DO NOT enter it like that into HMS like that.

To be safe, what you should do is enter NSC/DSQ/RET/DSQetc into HMS after the last finished boat of the heat.

What you are wanting to see is that the sequence in the points table is in tidy ascending order as you cast your eye down the column. We think you want to eliminate any chance that HMS Excel will attempt to do a “sort” on that column to tidy it up.

b/ Your data entry is smack up to date

Let’s suppose that you do indeed enter everything from the heat score sheet as presented and you maybe have a NSC or DSQ in the middle of the list.

Honestly – I know it’s fag, but stop right away. Rekey all the numbers from the impacted boat downwards, in that particular heat, to get the NSC/DSQs etc down at the bottom of the list. I know it’s tedious rekeying a ton of numbers, shuffling them up one row each. Believe me, just do it.

What’s the cause? We don’t know, but we suspect it’s avoiding HMS Excel doing it’s own sorting.

4/ At a large Event, Multiple NSC/DSQ/RET type decisions for a Single Heat arrive at once

This is tricky. It feels like (3) above, but maybe it has a problem type all of its own.

Our feeling is that you need to process these into HMS one at a time. Do not enter these adjustments as a group.

Our little local method which seems to keep the Doctor away, is to enter one adjustment then enter the Print sequence, but exit print again before going to paper. Then put the next adjustment in.

What’s the cause? Well … as a group of programmers we have our theories … but really we have no idea.

5/ Altering the Print Layout as the Event Progresses

It’s tempting as the scores pour in to think you can improve print legibility by adjusting margin sizes, flipping between portrait and landscape etc etc

Don’t. Just don’t…..

Leave it to the authors of the HMS spreadsheet and leave it alone.

Let us know your Hints and Tips by contact us via the “Contact” page of this website.

IOM Worlds : Scoring Outdoors? What Tablets to Use??

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Are you running an important Championship at your Club in the near future??

It’ll be quite well known in UK scoring circles that Datchet Radio Sailing use Parallel Scoring for the larger events. That is to say that, as we go, we score results simultaneously into two entirely separate systems in the interests of security and protecting competitor investment …and our hard earned Club reputation. You can lose both in the blink of an eye if something goes wrong.

There’s no point in parallel scoring if you don’t use entirely separate technologies. (We shall write more about Parallel Scoring later.) At the IOM Worlds we used HP and Dell Windows Laptops and a couple of ruggedised, military spec Android tablets. Always have at least two of everything!

We often use the laptops at the water’s edge, but for the IOM Worlds we kept them safely in a Clubhouse Office. For scoring at the line into the Parallel System, the Club has at least four android tablets.

We started with regular Samsung tablets, shrouded with Amazon bump proof and allegedly waterproof covers. Very nice, but not what we’ve ended up with.

For roughly the same money we have a couple of ruggedised tablets from a Hong Kong business called Oukitel. Definitely robust, no need for the protective covers and its IP68 water and dust resistant. Built for outdoors, when outside on a sunny day one appreciates the extra screen brightness. Mine has 620 nits… not that I know what that means! But it’s bright. The HP laptop by comparison is a devil to read outside on a sunny day.

We have two tablet sizes in use at Datchet – ten inch and eight inch screens. It’s a matter of personal preference. For Afleet HMS scoring specifically, my own preference would be the eight inch model.

OUKITEL RT3 Plus 4G Rugged Tablet 8-inch 11000mAh Big Battery 16MP Camera Android 15 (4GB+128GB NFC)

A couple more things:-

  • the RT3 Plus model (8 inch) in the photo above has a simply massive 11000mah hour battery aboard. It can do a couple of days scoring at least. Good.
  • I thought I’d be neutral about it, but these military spec tablets have TWO on board SIM slots. Not that we need two, but the point is the Samsungs have no SIM slots at all. You have to join a phone hotspot or return to the clubhouse to connect to the world. If you are into sending scores to a WhatsApp group, or direct to your Club Website on Afleet connect – or for heat backups…. you’ll want an onboard SIM and do those tasks at the line as the heat comes to an end. We use Lebara (Vodafone) SIMS.
  • Totally unexpectedly – if you look carefully at the photo you will see that the RT3 Plus has a neat flat, wide hand strap on the back. It’s personal preference, but for scoring I find that a simply massive benefit. I even use the ends of the hand strap to include a neck cord (and Apple AirTag) for the times in between races.

Drawbacks – probably this applies to tablet technology in general. Despite being IP68 waterproof, rainwater on the screen can effect the software mapping of where your finger hits the screen. If it’s raining and there’s no shelter, we now slip the tablets into one of those normal waterproof A4 pads that most clubs use for scoring.

https://www.amazon.com/Waterproof-Clipboard-Aihontai-Material-18-Month/dp/B07DQC8CDK?th=1

It’s only a couple of weeks since the IOM Worlds finished. We know at least two clubs that have, based on this experience, bought an Oukitel since the Worlds finished. No more Samsungs for us, I suspect.

Price? About the same price range as a Samsung ordinary tablet. Our 8 inch RT3 Plus was around 150GBPs in late 2025. Considerably less than a ruggedised Samsung, …. if you can find one these days. Cheap enough really to dedicate the tablet to scoring and allow nothing else in there.

IOM Worlds : Livestreaming – How Does That Come Together….??

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https://www.youtube.com/@IOMWorlds2026

What did you think of the Livestream video from the Gladstone Worlds?? Frankly, we all thought it was brilliant !! Talk about setting a high bar…..

There was a big determination for Datchet 2026 that we would somehow have to do Video coverage. The prime objective was to provide a showcase that would reach beyond current radio sailors, to the potential radio sailors of our future. There would be risks!!

We wanted two ways to do everything at the Championship, right?

So to give us backup for “Press Coverage” challenges we had a two pronged approach. For traditional yachting press coverage – perhaps addressing existing radio sailors first – we engaged the fantastic Mark Jardine of Yachts&Yachting and Sail-World fame. Mark had done a fabulous job of the Flying Fifteen Worlds in UK last year, so honestly it seemed an automatic choice. Our sport is notoriously challenging to photograph – but did you see the amazing shots that Mark was publishing? Go to the gallery on the Worlds website and see if you can pick out which photos Mark took. Really terrific …. More on Mark’s camera tech in a later website article. Mark has a great “TV” style too.

Gallery

I believe Mark also published the excellent official Facebook feed for the Championship.

https://www.facebook.com/IOMWorlds2026

Probably the first thing you’d notice about the Gladstone Worlds coverage was the three person commentary team. They were wonderful. Heaven knows how Australia pulled that together. We had to be a lot more modest.

We had keen Datchet member, Nigel Barrow (www.nigelbarrow.co.uk). Nigel worked so, so hard on this to achieve what it took two or three people to do at Gladstone – and commentated his head off for about 8 hours a day, for six days. Most of us thought, “glad it wasn’t me”!! Hats off to Nigel – I’ve had only positive comments about the entire Livestream project. Nigel was the superb public face of it all.

Making Commentating Easier:-

One quick point : we shall write more about this in another article. Based on 2024-2025 trials of IOM live-streaming, strong feedback to our commentator was to make it more about people, less about sail numbers. Easy to say, difficult to do. Nigel worked like a trojan on this, but you cannot expect anybody to memorise 84 sail number to skipper name combinations plus boat colour identities…. in their head – well, not if you want the commentator to talk sanely at the same time.

So for Nigel and Mark we created a phone based “Commentator’s Assistance Tool” that they could hold in the left hand, scroll with the left thumb as they commentated …with microphone or binoculars in the right hand. The iPhone tool held all the competitor names, sail numbers, country codes and latest positions/scores to make the commentating more feasible, easier and interesting. If you watch Nigel in the videos, you’ll see him referring to the phone in his left hand simply most of the time. We generated the Commentators Assistance Tool from our Parallel Scoring systems using a little piece of unannounced future product, built specially for the Datchet IOM Worlds and for Nigel. More info on this in the coming days.

Money, Budget, Costs :-

If you are going to try Livestream at your next Championship, you’ll very quickly get to:-

  • available budget
  • supplier choice

Our initial budget contained nothing for Live-streaming. Given the group’s determination to get something on the air, we would have to treat the budgeting separately.

The supplier quotes we received varied by 200%-300% for the providing the same concept. Huge, simply huge variation , some of them – at the top end the quotes – were the same as the entire championship entry fees plus a quarter more. Not feasible. We had no spare money anyway.

We made an appeal and received some very kind and generous pledges of financial support from the MYA, from Clubs, and from Individuals specifically to support Live-streaming and Press Coverage to a new audience. The pledges covered about 70% of the predicted costs, so we decided to run with it.

The first financial point to make relates to UK VAT taxation. In the tax regime of your country, it may not apply. In UK, if you go to a large established business, 20% VAT tax is added to your bill. If you select a younger smaller, growing business,… before they need to be VAT registered (“SME”), …the 20% tax is not added. So we went to a quite young business called Evergreen Productions. We knowingly selected talent over experience.

It was for a team of 5-6 people onsite for the whole Championship. Bless them, they camped in the dinghy park to save budget. The original Livestream quote was still 125% of our budget. So what to do? Evergreen suggested that we could pseudo-livestream and cut maybe 40% of the cost. That’s what we did.

Instead of being “live” and on-air all the time like Gladstone and Croatia, the Evergreen concept was to edit content and upload to Youtube at the end each race (5 heats). They would need the Starlink satellite to do that. For myself, I feel that editing the race content down in size before broadcasting was a VERY sensible approach in the end. The boring bits were edited out.

That’s how our coverage proceeded. The “editing suite” became situated at Nigel’s motorhome (with Starlink installed), right next to the Webmaster’s van. There would be lots of footage to edit down each race at the van then get uploaded via Starlink. There were challenges in upload speed to the satellite – possibly due to our proximity to Heathrow airport. Late hours into the night were often needed for the upload to complete.

Cameras were in the main, fixed and land based. To fly drones at Datchet Water you need permission from Heathrow airport and also from the Royal Palace at Windsor Castle. In the end, the land based cameras were fine – used along the shore and way up in the Clubhouse crows nest.

Judging by feedback, Nigel and Evergreen did well.

It came in on budget!!! 🙂

We shall try to get Evergreen to give us some reflections later.