I know it felt like we had improved a lot last year compared to the year before. We all know that the big genoa and the symmetrical spinnaker made a big difference — it was obvious because rather than finishing consistently last, we were in the hunt on any given race.
But now we have a number that measures how much better. In my previous post, I showed that in 2016 we were rated 70 and our performance was equivalent to 70. What were the figures for 2015? Was it a marginal improvement in our performance or a big one?
Actually, shockingly big. In 2015 we were rated 77, and performed 58 points worse: at a rating of 135! So our performance averaged 65 seconds per mile faster in 2016 compared to 2015. Fantastic!
Digging a little deeper into the stats for 2016, I noticed a few more things:
- In the first half of the year we were less consistent (Stdev=19) than the second half of the year (Stdev=14). I’m sure a lot of this had to do with experience, but also…
- In the first half of the season, our worst outings were in high wind. After we learned how to tune the shrouds and had the #3 re-cut (or used the old #3, which was flatter), we no longer under-performed our rating on windy nights.
- The only race in the second half of the season where we underperformed was August 18th, a night with a lot of wind shifts and a series of strategic and tactical errors: http://perspectiveracing.ca/2016/08/19/shifty-strategy/. If we drop this race from the calculation of consistency, our Stdev=5. Very consistent.
- And comparing our average rating for the first half of the season (78) with the second half (70), we not only got more consistent, we also got faster.
How about Tuesday vs Thursday? Nearly identical: Tuesday= 70, Thursday=71.
What a great season!