New race official. How do I run the race and eliminations?

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cchambers
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New race official. How do I run the race and eliminations?

Post by cchambers »

I am new to the raingutter regatta but guess who got volunteered to be the coordinator...me. What I need to know is how to handle running the race to be as fair as possible when you have an odd number of racers? Single elimination would be easy but then everbody only races once and you will have a "bye" run when there is the odd number. What has worked for you?
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Scoremaker
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Re: New race official. How do I run the race and eliminatio

Post by Scoremaker »

I would use this brackets system. It might work out well with this. Go to
www.crowsdarts/brackets/tourn you will be looking for Tournment Brackets. This sit has double and single elimination and numbers of people playing in the tournament. If you have and odd player I would have the scouts pick a number thru one and ten. Whoever gets the number or comes close to it has the bye. We use this system in horse shoe Tournamet and it work out very well. Good luck on the race.
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Da Graphite Kid
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Re: New race official. How do I run the race and eliminatio

Post by Da Graphite Kid »

Chris,

When the boys register their Raingutter Regatta boats we assign them a number. All pairings are made by blind drawing plastic chips from a can which have these same numbers on them. In the event of an odd number of boys racing; the last number drawn gets to race their Den Leader! They race for fun but it at least doesn’t give them a chance to just sit there and also gives them a chance to practice racing (of course the Cub Scout usually wins…). The next round, this same Cub Scout gets paired with the first number drawn from the can. This ensures that he doesn’t get two byes back-to-back.

A win for us is that a Cub Scout has to win on both ‘lanes’ (raingutters) as we have found that right-handed people do better on one lane versus the other and the opposite is true for left-handed people. This prevents someone from winning a heat due to a ‘fast lane’. This also ensures that each boat Captain gets to race at least four times as we run a double elimination format at our Raingutter Regattas. This has worked well for us for about four or five years.

If you would like a copy of our rules from last year, please feel free to pm me and I’ll e-mail them back.


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Darin McGrew
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Re: New race official. How do I run the race and eliminatio

Post by Darin McGrew »

Da Graphite Kid wrote:A win for us is that a Cub Scout has to win on both ‘lanes’ (raingutters) as we have found that right-handed people do better on one lane versus the other and the opposite is true for left-handed people. This prevents someone from winning a heat due to a ‘fast lane’. This also ensures that each boat Captain gets to race at least four times as we run a double elimination format at our Raingutter Regattas. This has worked well for us for about four or five years.
FWIW, a few years ago, our church's Pioneer Girls program held a Sailboat Race (a Raingutter Regatta by any other name...). One of the comments that came out of their post-event debriefing was that the "tracks" should be set up so the "captains" can walk down either side while blowing the boat. Otherwise, you usually have one "captain" on his/her good side, and the other on his/her bad side.

Also, there is quite a bit of skill involved, so they strongly recommended allowing everyone to practice a few times before the racing begins.
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Da Graphite Kid
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Re: New race official. How do I run the race and eliminatio

Post by Da Graphite Kid »

Darin,

Being able to walk down either side of one of the lanes would be a good solution to even out the competition as both racers would be able to race on their 'good side'. Our track set up won't allow for this but we have thought about an alternative: make them race down and than back up the lanes. This would make both racers have to race on both their 'good' and 'bad sides'. Unfortunately we hold our Raingutter Regatta races outside and there has always been at least a small breeze blowing. We sure would hate to make the boys have to race upwind... and I know from personal experience that some of us adults may not survive the race if we had to race upwind! :lol:


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Re: New race official. How do I run the race and eliminatio

Post by clemsontigerfanatic »

If at all possible do at least a double elimination so all the boys get
2 times down the track .

Too much time and money for 1 time.
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Re: New race official. How do I run the race and eliminatio

Post by gpraceman »

You don't have to do single or double elimination. You can use Stan and Cory's Perfect-N series charts. Having an odd number of racers will not matter since the charts will ensure that every racer will race in each lane (gutter) and they will race the same number of times. Generally, you would score a regatta by points (finish order), though some have employed timers.

These charts are built into a few software packages available on the web as well as a web based version at http://members.aol.com/standcmr/ppngen.html
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Da Graphite Kid
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Re: New race official. How do I run the race and eliminatio

Post by Da Graphite Kid »

Randy is right – I had forgotten about the Perfect-N charts of Stan and Cory’s. These are a very good alternative to the double elimination method. I tried to get our Pack to switch to these last year but the decision was made to stick with double elimination as everyone understood it better. :cry:

If we have access to a PC for this year’s Raingutter Regatta race (and the District race) I will suggest that we just use some derby race management software (like someone’s GPRM :wink: ) and manually input the finishes of each heat.

Of course we could try using the Microwizard timer for the finishes but I don’t think that the boats would fit under the finish line – not to mention that the electronics would not take kindly to the water! :mrgreen:


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