FEATURES
Joyce Chan might be new to racing her Yamaha 33 and have
a handicap that is very different from Alfie on his regularly raced
Yamaha 33 which is sailed by his well trained crew.
Two identical boats, racing in the same fleet, with different
handicaps? What’s that all about?
HKPN is not a measured rating like IRC. It is really just a number
that indicates how fast a boat is sailed when raced. Alfie on a
handicap of 1050 just sails faster than Joyce on her handicap of
1150. We could look at these handicaps in another way by calling
them ‘observed speed’. The smaller the HKPN, the faster the
boat. Alfie’s ‘observed speed’ could be, on average, 6.2kts and
Joyce’s ‘observed speed’ could be 5.7kts. In a race, if Joyce races
at 5.8kts and Alfie can only manage his normal 6.2kts, then Joyce
will win the race when handicaps are applied because Joyce sailed
faster than she normally does and Alfie didn’t.
In simple terms, the time that it takes for a boat to complete a
race is used to calculate a handicap. This handicap is used in
the next race and whichever boat outperforms this handicap
by the greatest degree, will be the winner. The example using
Joyce and Alfie illustrates how two identical boats might
have different handicaps based on how they perform. Overall
performance is based on the type of boat, how well she is
sailed, how well she is prepared, the weather, the crew, how
well she is raced and maybe even the mood of the skipper. If a
potentially fast boat has the same handicap as a slower boat
then it might be fair to say the ‘fast’ boat is sailed—how can
this be politely put—less well?
You might have noticed the HKPN fleet does not only have
Yamaha 33s in it. It has Impalas and a few J80s, the occasional
TP52, an old Taipan, a Farr 38, and many others, all of different
types, designs and epochs. With every race, handicaps change
for many of these boats with the sole intent of levelling the
playing field between all of them. Still, the principle remains
of whoever sails faster than they normally do, by the greatest
amount, will win a race.
This is what HKPN is all about. Your handicap is not just some
arbitrary figure. Nobody wins all the time. Everyone has a chance
of winning sometimes. It encourages people to race and keeps
things fair in terms of rewards.
Over the next few issues of Hebe Jebes, we’ll explain how
handicaps are allocated, how handicaps are changed after every
race, discuss a few handicapping issues and finish with answering
any frequently asked questions. If you have any questions, please
do forward them to the HKPN Committee at [email protected].
Any time you want more information, ask a member of
the HKPN committee. HHYC is represented on the HKPN
Committee by Bridget Chan of Windseeker. The committee’s
Chairman is Rob Berkley.
For full details go to sailing.org.hk/HKPN.aspx
44 Hebe jebes • JAN/FEB 2015
Features
HKPN船隻的名單可於香港帆船運動總會的網站上找到，網站
上列有近380艘船的資料，這些船隻都曾在過去三年出賽。單
在2014年，在完成近百場比賽後，已有260艘船隻 的讓分被重
新評估 。白沙灣遊艇會（HHYC）有32艘船列入了2014年颱風
盃帆船賽中的HKPN組別，其中很多已和那69艘在香港遊艇會
（RHKYC）環島帆船賽中進入了HKPN 組別的船隻並列在一起
。
自2012年夏天起，HKPN的裁