The project resulted in two improved systems :

First the NMBR system;

NMBR stands for New Measurement Based Ratings; This system is the most simple compromise between the wishes of both sailors and organisors and adresses the wished of both the measurement system fans as well as the Ameican/Australian sailors. This system is the one I think can bring the world together under one rating system setup. It is measurement based just like Texel and ISAF to cut down on maintainance work and to prevent rating creep. However it is fully intended to be alot more flexible than the current Texel and ISAF systems. It is intended to progress with the times. Afterall Texel was acceptably accurate in the 80's when all boats were very similar however it lost it accurateness when all kinds of new design came into play during the 90's. The Texel continued to ignore the changes and lost as a result. NMBR recognizes this and aims to prevent this from happening again.


Secondly the MBSR system;

MBSR stands for Measurement Based Simulated Ratings. This is actually more comparable to what yardstick systems try to do but fail at often. It takes know dependencies related to different setups and simulated back a rating on a set of parameters. This system is actually intended for distance races where normal assumptions underlining both Measurement as yardstick systems are not satisfied. No matter how you turn it both type of systems assume that a triangular course or a windward-leeward is sailed. This however is seldomly the case in distances races.

Each system shall be covered independently in this thread about a better mouse trap. They can however be made compatible.

The thing to remember is that the systems are constructs. They are based on logical framework, of some abstract level, but never the less their machines that can be altered or modified when that is so desired. Neither of them have a parameter regression or a statistical processing as the working core, meaning we administrators of these things understand how it works in detail and so their is no black art to confuse the sailors. OF course their fundamentals are based on various forms of statistical processing and dependency regression but only at the basis. Or more concrete example. The shape of the current texel formula can NOT be explained physically, the workings of Yardsticks system include many distrubances that are assumed to cancel one another out, simply because we have to assume that or accept that what we do is ill determined. Both NMBR and MBSR systems do NOT suffer from black boxes like that.

It is understood that even these improved systems are not perfect or even 100 % accurate. The desire for simplicity prevents that. However the only thing that really matters is that they are MORE accurate and MORE dependable than the current systems in use. That should be enough.

Wouter