One more thing

There is a new handicap-analysis button on the public results pages. Open the results of any handicap series and look at the right-hand side of the header panel for each individual race. Alongside the button to print the results, there is a button with a graph logo to show the way each boat performed against its handicap, such as 1% fast or 2% slow.

This is the same information as was always available using the  Analyse Handicaps tool to users that were logged in. Now anybody can see it.

Latest Updates

 I have made several improvements since the new version went live after Easter. You may be interested in the following.

• When viewing the overall results of a series on a small screen, such as a phone, the default is not to show a detailed table of the result of each boat in each race, but just to show the rank, sail number, boat details as in the series switches and net points in the series. Now there is a button to expand the display to show the full table just like on a full-size screen. That will inevitably involve some horizontal scrolling.
• If you are running back-to-back races and there are guest helms or crews, the system will remember the guest names from the previous race and suggest them for the next race. Also race officers can automatically preselect the competitors from the previous race on the same day.
• Tandem races now appear on the public calendar page. Users can click to see the results, just like base races.
• The default action has been changed when importing boats from a spreadsheet, Hal file or SailEvent. As before, users have the ability to change the action for each boat by means of drop-down lists on the preview page, but the preselected option varies.
  If the numerical sail number (what is written on the sail, excluding any letters) is not the same as that of any existing boat, the new-boat option is preselected.
  If there is a boat already in the boat register with this numerical sail number, there will be three options: ignore the new boat, update the existing boat, or add as a new boat. The preselected option will be as follows:
• If the complete sail number, including letters, of the boat being imported is the same as that of an existing boat, and they are of the same type, assume they are duplicates and preselect the ignore option.
• If the complete sail number of the boat being imported is the same as that of an existing boat, but the type of boat is different, preselect the new-boat option.
• If the complete sail number is different, albeit with the same numerical number, and the type of boat is the same, preselect the update option.
• If the complete sail number is different, albeit with the same numerical number, and the type of boat is different, preselect the new-boat option.

Strategic Alliance with Sailing Club Software Limited

Many HalSail users benefit from the app’s integration with SailEvent, developed by Sailing Club Software Limited. SCS also runs the popular DutyMan rostering app.

SailEvent’s eTally feature lets sailors sign afloat and ashore on their phones or shared touch screens. Intentions to sail are transferred automatically into HalSail, so that the race officer knows which boats to expect at the start line and the safety officer has a list of boats that are under his care. After racing, sign ashore declarations are seamlessly synched with HalSail for accurate and timely results.

In 2022 the relationship between the two developers, HalSail Ltd and Sailing Club Software Ltd, was formalised in a strategic alliance agreement. The two companies provide each other with technical and customer support. Going forward our strategy will improve efficiency and reliability by sharing infrastructure and spreading the customer support load.

Our commitment is to further integrate the activities of the two companies. The aim will always be to support the sport of sailing by reducing volunteer workload, eliminating paperwork and providing rapid, accurate results in a format convenient to sailors.

At HalSail I am excited to be working with great partners.

New version of HalSail going live after Easter

Thanks to the many users that have commented on the beta-test website. Your contributions have all been positive and very helpful in tweaking the site to get the best possible HalSail experience.

The new site will go live next week, after Easter. So when you go to the usual address - www.HalSail.com - you will see the new site. If you go to the beta-test site you will be redirected to the new site automatically.

I trust you will enjoy using the new version, but at least for a while you will still be able to access the old site by going to old.HalSail.com

Happy sailing during 2024

Help beta test new version of HalSail

HalSail is getting an update for 2024 with a fresher look, especially when viewed on a phone or tablet. It is nearly ready for release, but any feedback from users would be welcome before it goes live for everyone. There are no changes to the underlying structure of the app - how you set up your boat register, racing classes or schedule - just to the look and feel of some of the web pages.

Please log in at beta.HalSail.com, give it a try and send your feedback to support@HalSail.com

New Portsmouth Yardstick Numbers

The UK RYA has just released its PY numbers for 2024 and I updated the table of HalSail standard handicaps this morning.

If you want to update your PY racing classes to the latest numbers, log into HalSail and go to Boats > Standard handicaps. Click the button showing your PY classes and you will see a table of boats and their handicaps. Those that are not in agreement with the latest numbers will be shown in red. Either update them individually, or click the button to update them all at once.

Another Autumn Update

I have been busy responding to some of your requests. Here are another two features you asked for.

Scoring by helm, rather than by boat, is popular in clubs whose members swap boats during a series. It has been in HalSail for some time and appears as a button on public results pages. However the button can be confusing and it makes no sense unless there are guest helms specified for some of the results. So the button now only appears for those series with guest helms.

Race committees sometimes award redress to a boat that have been prevented from getting a result for some reason outside its control. Typical situations are if a boat is damaged in an incident that was not its fault, or if the crew had been asked to help organise a race rather than take part in it. To cover these situations there has always been a facility in HalSail to award redress in one of several ways which are specified in this FAQ. But in each case the boat is treated as a non-finisher. What if the boat does finish, but the race committee want to award it a number of points different from those applicable to the place it achieved? Up to now the only way was to score the boat DPI, but that implies a "Discretionary Penalty". The word penalty is not always appropriate, so there is now a new scoring abbreviation in HalSail called RDF - Redress given to a Finisher. You can award any number of points you like to a boat scored RDF and it will still take its place in the race as a finisher.