Deane performs invaluable role

Every sailing club and class should have a John Deane. He is just one of the many people working at Howth Yacht Club but few can doubt the benchmark he sets down. To see the fruit of his efforts, a quick visit to the HYC web-site is revealing. Apart from the amount of reliable information, the club web-master takes pride in rapidly updating the results section covering every class of every event - large and small.

But it's the racing results problem that is one of the biggest headaches for organisers. At Ford Cork Week earlier this year, a custom designed software package costing £25,000 failed to deliver full results until the 11th hour of the series, causing doubt and uncertainty among the 650 competing boats as to their standing. Clearly, with the best will in the world, even with a big budget, a solution will not work without strong human input.

At the heart of the issue is the complexity of yacht racing. Two scenarios exist: the first is relatively simple where one-design boats and dinghies require a straight-forward points system based on places at the finish of every race. While a variety of software packages handle this with ease, it is also possible to calculate positions, albeit at a slower pace, on the back of an envelope.

The same cannot be achieved for the larger boats that compete with a pre-determined handicap allowance. The finishing time for each boat within a given class at an event has its time correction factor (TCF) applied and the order of results is recalculated to find the true winners. Unless the results operator is a gifted mathematician, this process would be impossibly slow by manual methods.

Both scenarios become even more complicated when factors such as discards, redress, disqualifications and other penalties including combinations of all these factors are introduced. The pressure on organisers to deliver speedy results is immense.

For years, an Irish originated system was developed and managed by Colin McMullen to the extent that an export market emerged. The strength of the system made it the standard for Irish sailing and to this day it is widely acknowledged as the most powerful tool available. But McMullen's system requires considerable expertise and regular use for effective, consistent performance.

True, the bigger clubs can call on resources, both human and financial, when trying to tackle this crucial area. Dublin Bay Sailing Club operate one of the most extensive club racing programmes in Europe and faced the same obstacles several years ago. Pre-empting the explosion of internet usage, their Dun Laoghaire clubs subscribe to a waterfront system that downloads each day's results from a central server.

But that's where the John Deanes of Irish sailing become invaluable. Their role goes beyond the regular dedication of the behind-the-scenes crew, very often simply requiring just one person giving 100 per cent to detail.