Head racing

RDS is able to handle head racing.

Setup

In RDS, we use schedule_groups for different flights of head racing. One schedule_group must be set up for each flight, and the Is head race? switch set to Yes.

Start line

The start line for a head race is accessed from the List races menu. Each flight is listed as a schedule group, e.g. Group: Hungerford #1.

From this page, there are a set of links at the top of the page. Choose the one titled Head race start line.

The actual start line page is a series of races displayed on the same page. As each crew passes the start line (hopefully in ascending order), press the green Start button at the right had side of the screen. The button will react by going grey, and then is replaced some text stating when the crew was started, as well as a Did not start button, in case you accidentally pressed the start button.

Do not worry about how long it takes to react, as long as it does react.

Finish line

The corresponding finish line page is accessed in the same way. For each crew, press the # Finish button (where # is the bow number) of the crew crossing the line.

After the race

Check with both the start and finish lines to see if there were any timing glitches which require reference to the manual backup. Once these are fixed, you can go to the finish line page for each individual 'race', and press the Commit race button. This calculates the elapsed time for each crew, including calculating handicaps.

You can use the Next race: links to move on to the next race.

General comments on using iPads for head racing

Keep the ipad active when the race is approaching. Sometimes Safari seems to freeze if ignored for a while. I like to just scroll the page up and down a fraction so that I know the ipad is responsive.

Larger races may benefit from having two iPads at the finish, to deal with several boats crossing the line together. Remember that the two iPads will not know what the other is doing, so the users just need to communicate, and “call” which of them is going to take each bow number. If there is a *big* gap, they can press the Save/Refresh button…

The start and finish line pages show all of the races in that flight on one huge page (takes a while to load over 3G, so don’t expect rapid reload response.

Also remember that the iPad sends the time at which you press the button. Over 3G, it may not appear to respond immediately, but the button should flash when it is pressed. The checkboxes area will update itself at some point.

You have full manual backup, right? Rookie ipad operators will miss a few splits.

The most important split for timing purposes is the first one. Make sure your iPad is awake for that one. It is possible to insert that one after the event, but the math makes my head hurt.

In the event of a missed split, the information that you/I will need is the adjacent split (and who it belongs to) and the time difference.