Classes

The classes are used to split the whole list of yachts into well defined classes.

A scoring class comprises

  1. a name (e.g. "IMS 1")
  2. a scoring type (e.g. Class, IMS, etc.)
  3. optional: a time offset to the global starting time to make this class a particular starting group
  4. optional: linking of other classes to include the yachts assigned to the linked classes also in this class
  5. optional: selection of races which are relevant to the class (availability)
  6. The Class Factor per class is displayed for information only.

The assignment of yachts to classes is also described below.

Scoring classes

Scoring Type

Each class owns a scoring type property.

To declare generic class scoring (i.e. without any correction of the elapsed times) you should set the scoring type <Class>,
for an IMS scoring class please select <IMS>, and so on for all other available scoring tyes.

VelumNG makes several scoring tyes available, such as:

Additional parameters (course length, etc.) that are required by particular scoring types (especially IMS, ORC-Club, Catstick, Pickup) are called course specification. The course specification can vary from class to class and from race to race. The course specification dialogs are found in the race menu.

How yachts are assigned to classes OR
How classes find their yachts:

Direct Assignment

Each yacht can be assigned directly to one or more classes: This is done by selection within the yacht's dialog -> detail view -> handicaps&groups!

Usually one or two direct class assignments will be sufficient for nearly all kind of regatta events.

Class Linking

There is the comprehensive function of "Class-Linking" which allows you to put all the yachts assigned to particular classes also into a newly defined class.
In other words: You might think of "generic classes" which are selected directly from the yacht's dialog, and of "higher level classes" which find their yachts implicitely by following the links to other existing classes:
In this case you do not need to assign the yachts to this "higher level class" directly from the yachts dialog.

Assign Classes Automatically

This provides the possibility to directly assign the yachts that match particular selection criterions.
The function allows different criterions depending on the scoring type of the class to which the assignment should be done. Typically the assignment is done by the specification of a handicap range but for class scoring a search text is required to find the appropriate type of boat.
Additional options allow to modify the process, e.g. to assign only those yachts that were not assigned to any other class yet (new entries), or to make the process not unassign yachts that were assigned to the class but do not match the handicap range (to preserve manually entered class modifications).

Availabilty of races: Making particular races available for a class

This function is only available, if you have selected the global switch "User definable participations" in the global settings dialog.

This feature is just to support the organizers of extensive race events. It allows you to select specific races for evaluation for a class.

Independent of this, you can also declare the participation of the yachts individually race by race.
Please also read the instructions on grouping of races to get a complete overview of the systematics and power of this feature.

Adding Starting group Properties to a Scoring Class

Each class can optionally become a starting group.
This is done by entering offset times to the global races starting times.

All the classes that belong to the 1st start of the race receive the offset time 00:00:00.
Those classes of the 2nd start receive 00:05:00, i.e. 5 minutes later than the 1st start.

The elapsed time of each yacht is calculated as

<yacht's elapsed time> = <yacht's finishing time> - <global races starting time> - <class's individual time offset>.

Each yacht needs to be assigned to at least one class that is a starting group (directly assigned or indirect by linking classes). If a yacht is assigned to more than one class that declare starting times all the starting times must be identical, otherwise VelumNG will generate an error message as soon as a result is to be calculated. Remember: One and the same yacht cannot start at two different times...

Scoring of yachts that did not all start at the same time, can be achieved by combining these classes (class linking). Just leave the offset times of this class empty!


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