Ladder & Skip Etchells
- Rene Theil
- Mar 3
- 3 min read
Last Sunday at the dock beers after the Whitehead races 3, 4 & 5 (Congrats & thanks 🍻 MADNESS), a few questions came up about the Ladder & Skip Etchells. Questions were about what the difference is between the two and how things are calculated. So, I reached out to the "founder" and steward of these rankings, Jamie McWilliam, and "extracted" 🙂 the following...
HOW THE LADDER & SKIP ETCHELLS TROPHY RESULTS ARE CALCULATED
The Ladder and Skip Etchells trophies are awarded for performance over the entire season. The main difference between them is:
The Ladder counts ALL races and series: it is designed not only to reward performance, but also attendance.
The Skip uses the series result AFTER DISCARDS and counts only each boat’s best 60% (rounded up) of series results; it is designed to reward performance.
Points are calculated for each boat for each series, using the following formula, which is the original ISAF World Rankings formula:
Series Points = Series Weighting * 100 * {1 – [Result / (Series Entrants + 10)]}
The boat with the most points wins.
The terms in the equation are defined as follows:
1. Series Weighting – designed to reflect that the major and offshore series are harder to win and therefore success in them should receive higher points. (This can be adjusted by vote at the AGM before the season starts, as times do change…)
a. 0.9 for Harbour Saturday Series
b. 1.0 for Autumn & Spring Regattas, Kaye and Whitehead Series
c. 1.4 for the Class Champs
2. Result
a. Ladder Result = position in the series when ALL races are counted
b. Skip Result = position in the series after discards are applied
3. Series Entrants
a. Total number of boats that have anything other than a DNC in their race results for that series
Example of How a Single Series is Scored:
Appalachian Series 2018/19
Weighting = 0.9 (Harbour Saturday)
Entrants = 17 (Note: maximum turnout for any single race was 12)
1180 scored 5/4/11/9/8/7 for 44pts (ranked 5th) before discard, and 33 points (ranked 6th) after discard
1364 scored 2/3/4/4/DNC/DNC for 49pts (ranked 6th) before discard, and 31 points (ranked 5th) after discard
Therefore...
1180 scores 0.9*100*(1-(5/(17+10))) = 73.3pts for Ladder and 0.9*100*(1-(6/(17+10))) = 70.0 for the Skip.
1364 scores 0.9*100*(1-(6/(17+10))) = 70.0pts for Ladder and 0.9*100*(1-(5/(17+10))) = 73.3 for the Skip.
Example of How the Overall Ladder & Skip Series are Scored:
There were 11 series held in 2018/19, so each boat’s best 7 series points scores counted towards the Skip.
1193 scored 83.3/83.3/84.2/46.6/78.3/67.5/90.0/76.7/68.8/85.0/52.2
a. These 11 series points scores added up to 814.3, which ranked 2nd for the Ladder
b. The best 7 series points scores added up to 580.8, which ranked 3rd for the Skip
1243 scored 86.7/86.7/94.7/86.9/52.2/82.5/0.0/86.7/0.0/90.0/87.0
a. These 11 series points scores added up to 753.3, which ranked 4th for the Ladder
b. The best 7 series points scores added up to 618.6, which ranked 2nd for the Skip
Other Principles of the System:
Skippers/teams who are overseas competing in major Etchells events, e.g. Worlds, Continental, or National Championships, etc., will be awarded Average Points for the races they miss while away.
The same principle applies if a Skipper/team misses a race because they are doing RHKYC duties, e.g., Race Officer.
If a Skipper/team changes boats during the season, for the purpose of the Ladder & Skip Etchells, the points stay with the Skipper, not with the boat.
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