The History of Handicapping in Nova Scotia

The use of performance criteria handicapping in Nova Scotia goes back to the late nineteen forties. Before the Second World War our Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron, the continent’s first yacht club used the Universal Rule that was developed by the Herreschoffs in the U.S.A. and it had created the long low and narrow vessels, many of which still grace our waters. This system, like the several that followed it, worked by giving a time allowance based upon the vessel’s rated or measured length. In this way the measuring and the location of where the measurements were taken caused the shapes of the vessels that were designed to eventually approach a shape that was considered to be ideal to the makers of the measurement rule formula.

The old Race Books of that Squadron show that just after World War II some of the smaller boats, that were not measured, raced using a time allowance, but that allowance was calculated out as a percentage of their time around the course and this percentage allowance was then subtracted from their elapsed time as a time correction.

This way of doing the work only survived here for a short while because in the early 1950’s Captain Roy B.Mitchell, who was an interested sailor out of the Armdale Yacht Club came to the realization that the whole business could be further simplified by simply providing each boat with a single handicap number that would be used as a time multiplier, a simple percentage. After a few years of trying this out and after it established itself as the way that worked for our area, the other Halifax area clubs provided representatives and the Area Handicap Committee was formed. The early leaders in this group were William MacGowan from the R.N.S.Y.S., Tom Taylor from Bedford Basin Yacht Club and Roy Mitchell from Armdale Y.C. Representatives met generally before the major regattas in the area to go over the past race results and to size up any newcomers. In those times it was generally agreed that any new boat would be required to race at least three times before being eligible to win any trophies. In the mid 1960’s Yachting Magazine published our way of doing things as “Practical Handicapping”, by R.B.Mitchell.

When the North American Yacht Racing Union was broken up and Canada got its C.Y.A. he area handicap committee was drawn into our Nova Scotia sailing association and continued its efforts, broadening it scope to our entire province. To this day Nova Scotia has the only provincial association to continue this work.

Lest anyone think that things always went smoothly be assured that was seldom the case. Just as the C.C.A. Rule was fading out as the premier measurement rule in use, the R.N.S.Y.S. started using a rule that was developed by one of their members, Dr. Ernest Guptill and it was called the “Sambro” rule.  Measurement was minimal and governance was practically nil but it took about three years and the coming of the International Offshore Rule to finally rid ourselves of its nearly sport killing effects. The gentlemen at the Lunenburg Yacht Club developed some very strict rules that were very effective for their fleet and for their area and in many meetings with the club handicappers from the Halifax area they sought to have their ideas spread and used through the entire group. After many meetings it was decided that our aim should be that each club have its own handicapper and that each club do its own work in its own way BUT that the provincial group would merely suggest the handicaps that should be used when regattas were held that involved yachts from clubs other than the host club. Another failed adventure occurred when we tried to calculate our handicaps to one half percentage points. Before long, however we found that we were spending far too much time in debating the half points to warrant the volunteer effort it was demanding so we stopped it.

In the 1970’s and 80’s we were very fortunate to have as one of our handicappers one Michael Eames, representing first Dartmouth Yacht Club and later the R.N.S.Y.S.  Mike was a naval architect by profession and one of his pet projects was the Hydrofoil craft “Bras D’or” that was created for our Royal Canadian Navy. He spent hours of his own time creating and writing up the manual that we now use and which has been used as a guide by many clubs across both Canada and the U.S. Through his initiative our Atlantic Speed Potential Numbers System was drawn into the umbrella of the Performance Handicap Racing Fleets of the United States and many copies of his manual have been distributed there.

Another of the things that he did was to develop graphical analyses of the handicap numbers that were developed by some of the PHRH fleets and by our own fleet. These graphs showed that for most types of vessels that were common to both fleets we, as handicappers, were developing similar information. The discovery of this then enabled our group to assign handicaps to newcomers to our fleet using the numbers that had been developed elsewhere and thereby eliminate the need for them to race for a trial period to find their handicaps. The great assurance though was the confirmation that we had been handicapping vessels in a fair way all along.

During all of this, most of our group has remembered that for any performance handicapping system it is virtually impossible to eliminate completely the effect of the skipper and his crew’s performance from the determination of the handicap and to just handicap the yacht. This is the reason that for all our prestigious prizes we have always used a measurement rule. These, though with time they always seem to create vessels with certain characteristics, are of an international nature; they form standards that can be used for comparisons both of vessels and of the handicapping systems of others and they form the basis for the industry of yacht design and building.

For the larger vessels at most clubs the Universal Rule was replaced by the Cruising Club of America Rule soon after the war and it produced vessels that were much different from those that preceded it, the new boats had comfortable accommodation. Only the Chester Yacht Club continued using the old Universal Rule for any length of time and its use continues there in a very loose state to this day. (The boats are no longer measured).

The C.C.A. Rule lasted until the late nineteen sixties when it was replaced by the International Offshore Rule. This in turn was replaced by the Measurement Handicap System which became the International Measurement System when the European Clubs started to use it. Its use has just started to fade. Each of these Rules was applied in the American fashion by calculating a time allowance based upon the course length and the rated length of the various yachts though the IMS started predicting boat speeds relative to wind, sea and course type conditions. These latter refinements made the time corrections much more complicated for the race committees and contributed to the unpopularity of the system.

As this is written, in January of 2005, we are about to embark upon the use of a system originating in northern Europe called the IRC. This is an outgrowth of the Channel Handicap System. As far as we know at this time it is a new rule in which the formula is not known, thereby being difficult for the designers to cheat. We also know that in Europe it is applied as a time multiplier just as our own ASPN system, and if used that way over here it will be a very massive change for our American friends.

By: Robert F. Sarty

April 12, 2005