For OA Admins and Race Committee Members

Setting up the OA (Organizing Authority):

• You need to Sign Up as a user first and be logged on.
• An OA is an Organizing Authority, such as a Yacht Club, Sailing Association, or other organization that would organize a regatta.
• Create/Edit an OA: Click the 'OAs' menu item. then either select an Organizing Authority to Edit or View, or click the 'New' button to create a new one.
• For a NEW OA, you will be made the 'OA Admin' with full access for all functions.
• NOTE: The 'OA Code' should be a brief abbreviation for your organization. Like 'PJYC' for 'Port Jefferson Yacht Club'. It will need to be unique in the system, so if one already exists, it might be yours already, or a similarly named OA. Choose something unique, perhaps by appending a state, country or other location. It can be up to 128 characters, but keep it short for display purposes.
• Pricing: For 2023 there is no fee, as the site is under development. After that there will be a fee for the OA. The system will keep your info, but you will not be able to edit it, add Regattas, or do scoring until payment has been received. Prices TBA.

Setting up Roles:

• The OA Admin can assign roles to users. These can be things like various Race Committee positions. Any role other than a basic 'OA Member' will have authority to add regattas, do scoring, etc…
• The user you edit the roles for must already be signed up on the system. Enter their email address and click the 'Lookup' button. This will either tell you they don't exist, or will show you the roles they are authorized for. You can select the roles you want and click 'Save'.
• These are mostly informational. However a user with just 'OA Member' as a role cannot edit anything or add regattas, races, or do scoring. All other roles can.

Regattas:

• To Add or Edit a Regatta, click the 'Regattas' menu item and select 'Manage/View Regattas'
• Click 'New' to add a new regatta.
• Select a Regatta to Edit or View. Selecting an OA is not needed, but will limit the list of regattas to just those for that particular OA.
• Divisions: You must have at least one Division. Click the + icon next to 'Divisions' to add one. The 'ID' field is a short name like 'Spin' or maybe 'Spin 1'. The Description field (Desc:) can be a longer name for it. Chose a default warning time (can be overriden when you create a Race later), and a scoring method like 'PHRF'.
• Documents: You may add any number of documents. Click the + icon and add it. Enter a description such as 'NOR' or 'SIs' or anything else you might want. Select 'Choose file'
• Status: Click in the 'Regatta Status' box to edit the status. You can choose from all the standard RRS signals. You can also enter some optional text such as 'Check with RC before heading out' or nothing at all. The appropriate signal flags will be shown.

Races:

• To Add or Edit a Race under a Regatta, Choose a Regatta as above. Then click the 'Scoring' button.
• If there will be a series of races, enter more than 1 for the # in the series, and the number needed to qualify, and the number that should be used in the series score. The '# to Score' means that number of the best races are kept, and the number below that are discarded. This is per the RRS Appenix A for series scoring. So for 7 races, 5 might be needed to qualify, and if 5 are also used to Score, then the worst 2 races are discarded. (DNE of course not Excludable). Also decide if rule A 5.3 is in effect, which per the RRS should be noted in the NOR or the SIs.
• To ADD a race, click the + icon next to 'Races:'.
• NOTE: The Race Name can be left blank at first. If you leave it blank, a default name will be filled in automatically from the info below it. You can always edit it later.
• Fill in the needed info, including the 'Status' which you can choose from the choices as you see fit. This is purely informational.
• Scoring: To score the race, pop back to the list of races and choose the '!' (Edit) icon next to it. All the registered boats will be filed in. If you are missing one, the skipper must register first. Then you can tab through the finish times. If you enter a valid time, the 'Code' field will be set to 'FIN' (Normal Finish) for you, and the tab key will just take you to the next boat's time field.
• Time Field: Use 24 hour time. Also, for easier entry, you can separate the HH MM and SS fields with EITHER a colon ':' or simply a space! So '19:23:17' and '19 23 17' are both valid.
• NOTE: The points and corrected time info are all updated as you enter the data. However it is not re-sorted to keep navigation in the form simple. To re-sort based on scored points, click the 'Re-Sort' button.Then of course don't forget to click 'Save'.
• If you forget to hit 'Save' and you have changed something, you will be prompted with a remonder if you try and close the dialog. You can still abandon the changes if needed, or return to scoring.
• The 'Print' button brings up a simple web page with the results, suitable for printing or converting to a PDF (Usualy a browser print option).

RaceTac Committee App Integration

• Staring with Version 3.00 of the RaceTac Committee Apps (Android and iOS), the app can synchronize some data with this web based RMS.
• The App will synchronize with this RMS once a minute. If it fails, perhaps due to being out of range of a cell tower, it will keep trying until it succeeds.
• NOTE: Before logging any finishing times, the App user must choose which Regatta they are scoring!
• Logon: In the app, there is an 'RMS Sync' menu item. Enter the same username and password here as you use for this RMS.
• Boats: The app will download the list of boats registered for all the Regattas that you are entitled to manage, either as an OA Admin, or Race Committee member. This saves time when entering details for finish times. You cannot add or edit boats when using the boat lists from the RMS. You must only edit the boats on this RMS, and they will sync down to the app.
• Finish Times: These will synchronize to this RMS for the Regatta the App user has chosen. In a future version of this RMS, there will be an ability to quickly import those times into the scoring section.
• Location: The Regatta dialog in this RMS has a box to show locations of various Race Committee boats. The App user can optionally synchronize their location, and racers can see the location in the RMS. In a future version of the RaceTac App for racers, these locations will show up on charts and in the marks list. The RaceTac Committee app can label these as the Committee Boat (CB), or a Mark Boat (MB-1 thru MB-4).

Reference

Structure:

Organizing Authority (OA): Such as a Yacht Club or Sailing Association.

Regattas: Under an OA. These have start and end dates, can have one or more Divisions, which can have one or more races.

Divisions: Under a Regatta. One or more. Includes an expected first warning time, and a scoring method such as PHRF, IRR, etc... Such as 'Spin', 'Non-Spin', and the like.

NOTE: You register for a Regatta and a Division.

Races: Under a Division. One or more races in each Division.

Series: A Regatta may have a series of more than one race. This is supported.

Users:

All Users must signup on the system. Including anyone who wants to register for regattas.

Your 'User ID' is your email address. This can be changed by editing your info, without losing any other data you have set up.

Users must add boat(s) they will want to register. These are saved under the user for future use.

A User can create an OA, and will become it's administrator, who can then add regattas, divisions, etc...

A User can signup as a member of an OA if they wish, but does not need to. This does not register you with the OA as a true member, it is just for clerical purposes.

My Boats:

Boats are added from a menu item under 'My Account'.

A boat has various info, including default handicaps for the different scoring methods.

Handicaps can be overriden when you register for a regatta, as some OAs use different handicaping standards. So if you are racing out of your area and get a temporary certificate, you can enter it at registration time.

My Regattas:

This menu option under 'My Account' lists the regattas you have registered for.

You can qucikly jump to view the regatta details, edit the handicap, or remove your registration.

Regattas & Roles:

An OA Administrator can create regattas.

An OA Administrator can also assign roles to other users, such as additional Admins.

While editing a regatta, you can hit the 'Roles' button to add roles to users. Note that the email user ID must be registered as a user on the system.

Race Docs: When editing a regatta, you can upload the usual documents such as NORs and SIs.

Notes: When editing a regatta, you can add general notes, such as race status, social event schedules, special requirements, etc.

Plans: We intend to implement a separate race status indicator, such as for signals ashore like 'AP', 'Racing Cancelled', etc. For now use the Notes section.

SCORING:

Scoring is fully supported. See the 'Scoring' button under the Regatta dialog.

We intend to integrate scoring with the 'RaceTac Committe' mobile app.

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