On the weekend of October 19th and 20th 2019 the South Australian State Titles will be run at Mawson Lakes, but this time they will be run under a new scoring format.
The Simple Heat Racing System (SHRS) is a system which we here in South Australia believe fits better with the ethos of RC Laser sailing than does the current Heat Management System (HMS).
The main difference with using SHRS is that after ranking the whole fleet on day one, for the second day’s sailing each sailor will be locked into either gold or silver fleets. There is no movement between fleets and there will be a trophy for the winners of both fleets. Everyone has something to race for.
How does the Simple Heat Racing System work?
For the simplicity of this explanation assume we have 20 competitors entered in a two-day competition.
Qualifying Series – On day 1 we conduct of Qualifying Series of 8-10 races. For this series the 20 competitors are randomly divided into two heats of 10 boats, A Heat and B Heat.
The aim of Qualifying Series is to give every competitor the opportunity to sail against every other competitor. To achieve this, all odd place finishers (1,3,5 etc.) in each race remain in the same heat, and all even place finishers (2,4,6 etc.) change to the other heat. This results in 50% of competitors changing heats after every race.
The other important aspect of the Qualifying Series is that no competitor who finishes a race can receive more than 10 points for that race, compared with the Heat Management System (with A & B Divisions) where the last competitor in B Division receives 20 points.
A Heat and B Heat must complete the same number of races for the Qualifying Series to be completed.
Finals Series – On day 2 we conduct a Final Series
For this series 10 competitors sail in the Gold Heat and 10 in the Silver Heat.
Say 8 races were sailed in the Qualifying Series, then each competitor will be scored on his/her best 6 races and ranked 1-20. The top ten competitors go to the Gold Heat and the next ten to the Silver Heat.
There is no movement of competitors between the two heats. They are discrete heats. There are prizes for place-getters in both heats.
Should this series finish early due to unsuitable weather, there is no requirement that the Gold Heat and the Silver Heat sail the same number of races.
Should we be unable to conduct any races in the Finals Series, then prizes will be awarded to place-getters 1,2,3,11,12 and 13 from the Qualifying Series results.
Here’s a full explanation of rules for the SHMS
Invitation to try the New Heat Racing System at SA State Titles at Mawson Lakes
For those of you who came to the National Titles at Mawson Lakes in 2018, you already know what a great location and what excellent facilities we have. For those of you who haven’t sailed on our home waters yet, you have got a treat waiting for you.
The other big news is that the RO for 2019 will be one of our own – Stewart Ross. Stewart is an enormously experienced race officer who has officiated in major yachting regattas all around Australia. We are very lucky to have Stewart at Mawson Lakes and you are all going to love his experience in handling major events. Also we may have the services of a scorer well versed in using the SHRS system.
Put all this together with sailing in what is now one of the biggest RC Laser fleets in the country – Mawson Lakes now has well in excess of 20 Lasers in the club – and you have all the right ingredients for a great event. While we can’t make any promises about the weather, we can say that the south-westerly sea breezes which are legendary here in South Australia are at their most reliable in October.
We need 18 sailors to be able to run this event. We hope that you will be one of them. If less than 18 sailors attend the state titles we must use the HMS system.
Please contact Adrian Heard to express your interest in attending the SA State Titles by email or text.
Adrian Heard Email heard.14.au@gmail.com Phone 0427 833 324