For the new year, we've introduced a new scoring system for sailors at ka72.com
Although having any kind of "score" automatically invites comparison with other sailors, the true intent is to determine whether you are personally a better sailor now than you were last year (and the year before, and so on.)
The new scoring system adjusts the rating based on where you sail, which makes it a fairer (I think) assessment of an individual's ability in relation to where they sail.
I've had a number of comments over the years to the effect that it is easy to game online competitions by just travelling to a favourable spot on a favourable occasion and scoring one or two high scores that push you over the edge. The scoring system on ka72 seeks to erase that advantage, and level the playing field somewhat.
It's still a bit beta, so any feedback appreciated. Happy to field questions.
Dylan.
Thanks Dylan. I think I'll insert a Daffy quote here . "The older I get the better I was" 
Looks good Dylan, kind of a handicap system?
Could you explain how you calculate the scoring a bit more? Does it give a score based on your uploads compared to all the sessions uploaded at a location?
1) All non-private and non-anonymous windsurfing tracks are scored. Tracks that are hidden or private, aren't used in working out scores. (but anonymous ones are.)
2) For a location to be considered usable for score purposes, there must have been a few different people that sailed there. I think I've pegged it at about six at the moment, but it could be more or less in the future.
3) For each location, an average and standard deviation over all time are calculated for each of the seven standard divisions on ka72.
4) For each of your tracks at one of those locations, a standardised score is generated based on the mean and SD generated in step 3. This may be a positive number (when you sail better than average) or a negative number (when you sail worse than average.)
5) Your top ten standardised scores in each division (for the year) are then used to determine your overall sailor score using a secret magic formula.
6) If you don't have ten tracks yet, then your score for the remainder will be 0 (or average.)
Problems I am dealing with:
a) If a location changes in difficulty over time (building up a sandbank, or eroding one away, for example) this is not accounted for.
b) Rule 6 above means that good sailors will start the season with a median score that will go up. Poor sailors will also start with a median score that will then go down as their first ten tracks are loaded, before rising again. This probably isn't the most motivating approach. Any ideas?
c) People that mostly sail at one location where nobody else sails won't be able to generate a score until they sail somewhere else too. If you are the only person on your beach, comparison becomes meaningless.
One interesting side-effect of this system is that it could be advantageous for a strong sailor to post all their weakest tracks at a location, in order to bring down the average speed at that location and thereby boost their score. I know some people don't like posting their dud tracks, but this compensates them.
Nice work Dylan although I suppose No.2 counts me out as the only sailor that GPS windsurfs in my area. Ah well at least I'm the fastest at my home spot
The spot rating is a top idea to "level the playing field".
A separate rating for ladies would be desirable but then you would need to collect more data.
Select to expand quoteWindxtasy said..
The spot rating is a top idea to "level the playing field".
A separate rating for ladies would be desirable but then you would need to collect more data.
If you set your Gender in your profile I can show a list by Gender. That's the only extra data required.
I've identified a number of tracks that have slipped through the net in terms of sailor score. They are being gradually reprocessed, and this may affect some sailor scores (and PBs) over the next few days.
Data quality improves all the time. If you are missing PBs or think your score is weird, feel free to email or PM me and I'll look into it. dylan@ka72.com
I've only ever used KA72 to upload tracks. I didn't realise it had any features.. 
Will go and have a look.
Boy I'm sailing lousy this year compared to last.. 
.. deeper choppy conditions don't help..
It takes at least ten sessions in a year to start to build a reasonable score, so don't despair.
It's not based on your best track for the year, but your best ten tracks for the year (or more precisely, your best ten results - adjusted for the location you got them at - in each division for the year.) The score should also account for the different conditions you are sailing in, once you build up a set of tracks for the year.
But enjoy taking a look. I'm taking a breather from it for a few weeks to focus on my day job and most near-term work will be fixing stuff that's there but not working right.
