Scoring of regattas is often done, and done very well, by wives and girl friends. In the past we have given them awards to acknowledge their good work and suffering. Some how the ethos has changed and it has gotten harder and harder to find scorers. Girl friends have become wives, wives have become mothers, wives have left (can you blame them?), bladders have shrunk, whatever the reasons (probably the scorers grew up) the Maine iceboaters found themselves with fewer and fewer scorers for more and more regattas.

First we tried "lining up in the order you finish" routine, OK for scratch racing , but not when one’s status in the community and awesome trophies are at stake. Sometimes the skippers just couldn’t tell who beat whom, and there were disagreements, even hard feelings. Besides some of us can’t count laps, and we’re not sure about the others.

Dick Saltonstall, during his reign as Maine commodore, doggedly pursued the refinement of self scoring which like most brilliant inventions turned out to be so simple we wondered why we hadn’t been doing it all along. We are not suggesting this for IDNIYRA events, just the lesser conflicts.

The first race of the day is a scratch practice race, no starting positons are drawn, just get in on the line someplace The winner of the first race, which is otherwise not scored, starts and scores the first official race. (With a larger fleet perhaps winner and number two could start and score.) The winner of the first real race of the regatta starts and scores the second one etc. The scorer of the most recent race takes the start position of the scorer of the next race (usually No. 1). No one starts or scores more than one race. If someone wins a race who has already scored then the next highest finisher races. Four races for record are required so that the scorers get in three races, others get a throwout, their worst race doesn’t count.

In our relentless pursuit of simplicity we tried having no numbers on the start line. This doesn’t not work. You must have numbers and a line or it isn’t a regatta. If the fleet is embarrassingly small (6-8 boats), as ours often are, we may have a one sided start line. This reduces the significance of wind shifts or bad ice on one side of the course favoring one tack.

Most of our trophies are home made, there is subtle competition around the invention of tasteful, impressive, yet cheap trophies.

The system has been used for three seasons in Maine and even the skeptical old timers are convinced. It works and it is fun to score and see a race once in a while. You can learn something by watching, especially the skippers who are beating you.

The faster skippers are handicapped by not having a throwout, it develops their character. They shouldn’t screw up and need a throw out anyway if they are any good. There is a certain pathos in winning the first race which doesn’t count and not doing so well in the real ones, again character benefits. Sandbagging in the first race hasn’t been a problem. The fast guys are going to score sooner or later, they might as well get it over with.

Last but definitely not least, nobody complains anymore about lousy scoring , we’ve all been there. The decision of the scorer is final. Protests are not allowed. The skipper who calculates the final scores get to have his boat and gear carried off the ice by the other competitors.

KEEP IT SIMPLE