Concern over the implementation of Forecast-Time Correction Factor (F-TCF) scoring rocked this year’s Newport Bermuda Race after it was discovered that rating discrepancies impacted the results. The ratings, which were provided to the race organizers by US Sailing and generated through Expedition, had been impacted by a software glitch.
Acknowledging that the scoring issues created confusion and frustration, US Sailing has published an investigation into what went wrong.
They note that it was “a large discrepancy in the ratings of two boats that should have rated very similarly” that first raised concerns about the process. They notified the race organization and began investigating.
The findings identified two failure points. “The first was when the ratings were produced on Friday morning; for unknown reasons, the software produced incorrect ratings.” They were unable to reproduce this error and do not know what caused it, but acknowledge that the issue could have been caught sooner if checks had been more “robust.”
“The second issue centered around how the software routes fleets of boats, relative to how it routes boats on an individual basis; running fleets vs. running individual boats produced different ratings. US Sailing worked with the owner of the routing software who subsequently identified and corrected the code error.”
They were then able to provide corrected F-TCF results for each individual boat to the race organizer. Several days of redress hearings followed, and the results of the race were overturned several times.
“Race Organizers choose what rating systems they want to use, and what scoring methods they want to implement. The software that helps calculate those ratings had a bug, and everyone worked cooperatively and tirelessly to help rectify it. The jury ultimately decides the fate of competitors who seek redress. It was an unfortunate situation for all, and we understand why people feel the way they feel,” US Sailing’s statement acknowledged.
This summer’s Pacific Cup was also slated to use F-TCF scoring. With somewhat more consistent conditions expected, US Sailing believes this course will be less challenging for the software to interpret, and have committed to moving forward with F-TCF scoring, with the addition of rigorous checks. Afterward, they will suspend their production of F-TCF ratings until a more thorough investigation is complete, presumably to find the source of the Friday morning software error and determine whether a system devised to improve fairness is actually achieving what it set out to do.
To read the full report, click here.
