The kSail Swiss League is a scheduling and scoring system which is fully integrated into the kSail Events Portal.
The core principle of using a Swiss League for Team Racing is that the format develops and encourages peer-to-peer sailing where teams are more frequently scheduled to sail against teams of a similar standard. Standard schedules in a round robin format(s) require teams to sail all other teams in their group and as such can lead to one-sided matches.
The Schedule
For a Swiss League, the race schedule is programmatically generated as the event progresses. Racing is scheduled in rounds with each team sailing a single match within each round. An initial random draw decides the matches in the first round; the second round is pre-determined with the race winners meeting other race winners and race losers meeting other race losers. Subsequent rounds are then generated from the ranking of the previous but one round such that teams are scheduled to sail teams that are as near as practical equally ranked. A variable value can be set at the start of the event to ensure the same match does not happen to frequently.
Scoring and Tie Breaks
At the end of each round, after all teams have sailed the same number of races, teams are ranked in order of number of races won. Tie breaking considers the number of races teams have sailed, won and lost; firstly against teams ranked higher and subsequently teams that are ranked lower. When, just two teams are tied, the tie is broken in favour of the team which won the last match between them.
Limitations
- As teams sail just one race at a time; every team will change in/out of boats after every race.
- This requires significant shoreside resources and management to assist with quick and effective changeovers. Changeovers using RIBs are possible however require even greater coordination. Due to this, some venues are physically not suited to hosting Swiss League Events.
- At events for less experienced team racers it can sometimes be difficult to ensure teams change into the correct boats.
- Historically, a central location for sharing the updated schedule and ranking was required. This again added further limitations to which venues could deliver a successful swiss league. With the kSail Portal being fully managed and available online, this has become less of a challenge.
- Swiss League formats are great at developing peer-to-peer racing; however they can be unreliable in providing an accurate ranking of an entire event. As more rounds are completed, teams in the middle of the ranking should win and loose an increasingly similar number of races meaning that a single race win or loss can have a significant impact on a teams overall ranking.
In time we intend to provide some more in-depth information about the maths behind the kSail Swiss League and its creation and development, as well as some hints and tips to race organisers and managers on how best to deliver racing using a Swiss League Format.