Computer glitch blamed for DNFs in Saturday’s race

By Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki

August 11, 2014 at 1:27 pm Lake St. Clair

Lake St. Clair is the scene of a sailing race most weekends during the summer.

There was a lot of confusion about the scoring after Saturday’s Grosse Pointe Sail Club regatta on Lake St. Clair, when only one class on the A-B course, PHRF 1, was actually scored. The rest of the classes were listed as exceeding the race’s time limit

Detroit Regional Yacht-racing Association officials say there was a “computer problem” and all boats will be scored.

Here’s what happened. The bigger boats on the A-B course were originally supposed to race two windward leeward races, but that was changed before the regatta to one long windward leeward race of eight legs. (The eight legs were shortened during the race to seven, because the wind lightened.)

Sailing instructions are usually written early in the season and each sponsoring yacht club can make changes when it comes time for their race. Usually, however, there are only minor changes made, such as adding a section for their club boats or maybe changing the order of the starts.

The problem was, when the race format was changed, the SI was also supposed to be changed to double the time limit for the race to five hours, from the usual 2 1/2 hours. Traveling at six knots or so, it was nearly impossible for most of the boats to finish the 14 nautical mile course in 2 1/2 hours.

Consequently only PHRF 1 finished within the old, 2 1/2 hour time limit. The computer program automatically did not score the rest of the boats because it was still programed for the time limit.

“They did some work on the program and there was a problem and they’re going to correct it,” said Ed Thysen of DRYA.

The computer will be reprogrammed to five hours and all the boats will be scored accordingly.

“Everyone finished fine,” Thysen said.

The C course boats weren’t affected because they sailed a shorter race.

Confusing, yes. But Thysen said the corrected scoring should be up on the DRYA website soon.