FindYourSails Sailing Index · v1 (2026-09-07)

How the FindYourSails Sailing Index is computed

This is not an official ranking. The index is an open, reproducible score computed from the public results FindYourSails has indexed, always shown with its confidence and the results that made it. Where the data is thin the page says Insufficient data instead of printing a number.

What goes in

One row per result: a placing in a published result set that is not an entry list, from a regatta with a known date. Entry lists never count — participation is not a result. Provisional results count at weight 0.9. Abandoned sets, rows without a rank, one-boat fleets and regattas older than five seasons are excluded.

The formula

percentile   = 1 − (rank − 1) / (n − 1)
level_bonus  = world 0.50 · european 0.35 · national 0.20 · nordic 0.15 · regional 0.05 · club 0
strength     = percentile + (1 − percentile) × level_bonus
fleet_w      = min(1, (n − 1) / 9)
race_w       = min(1, race_count / 4)
status_w     = final 1.0 · provisional 0.9
recency_w    = 0.5 ^ (age_in_years / 2)
points       = 1000 × strength × fleet_w × race_w × status_w × recency_w

index        = mean of the best 5 result points
confidence   = min(1, n_results / 8) × (n_recent ≥ 1 ? 1.0 : 0.6)
published    = n_results ≥ 3 and n_recent ≥ 1

Event strength lifts a placing towards the top by a share of the headroom above it: a win is 1000 anywhere (before fleet, race and recency weights), a mid-fleet finish at a world championship (0.5 → 0.75) is worth more than the same finish at a club race (0.5), and two placings in one event never collapse into the same score. Small fleets, few races and old results weigh less — structurally, not as a filter added later.

Index, confidence and minimum requirement

The index is the mean of the five best result points. An index is published only with at least three usable results, one of them within the last 24 months; otherwise Insufficient data is shown with the counts. Confidence grows with the number of results (full at eight) and is reduced when no result is recent.

Subjects and scopes

An index is computed for a competitor observation (one source's view of a person, never automatically a person) and for a verified sailor (all observations linked through an approved claim). Scopes per class, country (the venue's country), club (observed club), offshore and dinghy are the same rows filtered — never a different formula. Youth indices are not computed: age is not in the sources.

What is never counted

• Raw activity — the number of races is not skill.
• Follows, views, shares — popularity never enters the index.
• Guessed age, gender or nationality.
• Learned weights: every change is a migration with a diff and a new version line here.

The index is recomputed nightly. Every row carries the five results that made it, with a link to the source.