New guidelines for handicapping

SAILING/Weekly Column: New guidelines to revamp the management of the 30-year old East Coast Handicapping Organisation (ECHO) system have been published by the Irish Sailing Association this week following concerns voiced by cruiser-racers.

The review comes on foot of gripes that the performance based system (that caters for roughly 500 users) had become a secondary fun handicap but not sufficient enough - argue critics - to be a robust benchmark such as the International Club rule (IRC) has proved.

In spite of its shortcomings, the system has many satisfied users including the country's biggest racing club, Dublin Bay SC, with 600-boats. Commodore Fintan Cairns describes ECHO as an "important part of DBSC's clubs racing calendar."

ECHO is a performance based personal handicapping system. It is centrally controlled in an effort to ensure continuity of the basic rule but locally administered for the accurate calculation of results at various clubs.

Significantly, the ECHO overhaul emphasises the need for owners to advise material changes to a boat or crew to minimise the effects of jockeying by professionals, for example.

According to the ISA president Paddy Maguire the management revamp now includes a rule-of-thumb test that will identify unexpected performances and a correlation test that can examine the reliability of the handicapping in any particular race.

In addition, handicap protests - often a contentious issue - will now be addressed by a handicap review group and this has been welcomed by John Faller, handicap convener at Howth Yacht Club.

The ECHO management revisions published in Howth on Wednesday evening revealed issues such as those posed by sleepers - sailors who rarely sail under ECHO but who nevertheless gained advantage under the rule by occasional turnouts with weak handicaps, typically in end-of- season Autumn leagues.

Recognising the wide range of boats favoured by owners and the widely differing abilities of different crews, the ECHO system has a seemingly impossible task of assigning handicaps on the basis of boat and crew performance to ensure that as many competitors as possible in each race, sailing at or near their best, would have an equal chance.

In order that the rule is maintained the letter and spirit of ECHO requires that owners make a genuine effort in every race, and not seek to earn a handicap that is not a true and fair reflection of the performance potential of the boat and crew.

In dinghy circles, 70 sailors from 18 clubs will compete in selection trials for the 420 Irish team on March 23rd/24th at Swords.