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Cynthia Cup Scoring System

The Cox-Sprague scoring system has been used by the Race Committee to determine the Cynthia Cup winner since the merger of the Wawasee Boating Association and the Wawasee Yacht Club. Prior to the merger there was only one fleet that competed for the Cup; hence, the fleet winner was the Cup winner. After the merger it was necessary to find a scoring system that fairly evaluated the leaders in each fleet to determine the Club Champion. The Race Committee decided that the Cox-Sprague system best fitted our needs. With the addition of two more fleets, Sunfish and Laser, the racing skippers were surveyed to determine their desires on how to recognize these addition fleets. The decision was to award the Cynthia Cup to a single-handed skipper and to a multi-crew skipper with the Cup to be equally shared by each.

The Cox-Sprague system is designed for a selective series. This is the type of series that we run at WYC for our club championship. The other type of series is a set series, i.e. a weekend regatta, which commonly uses the low-point scoring system. Although, there are many other types of systems that maybe used for either selective or set series races.

The Cox-Sprague system is built around two theories. One that it is more difficult to win a race against a large number of starters than a small number but the difficulty is not in direct proportion to the number of starters. The other that the nearer the front of a race a yacht is, the more difficult it is for it to move up a place.

A yacht will receive the number of points indicated in the Cox-Sprague Table for its finishing position. The sum of all the points that the yacht receives for all of its races in the series will be divided by the sum of the scores received by the winners in all those races in which the yacht participated. The highest resulting score will be the winner.

There is no perfect solution for determining the club champion with skippers racing in several different fleets and with no fair way for them to compete against each other. The race committee feels that the Cox-Sprague system allows each skipper to race to his or her best abilities within their respective fleets and be fairly awarded the opportunity to win the club championship.

If you have questions concerning this scoring system please contact the Race Chairman.

Fleet Eligibility
The total number of races for the fleet with the lesser number of total seasonal races shall be at least 80% of the total number of races for the fleet with the most seasonal races. Skippers in a fleet not meeting this requirement shall be ineligible to compete for the Cynthia Cup. This rule may be waived or modified due to unusual circumstances by a majority vote of the Race Committee, which consists of the Race Chairman and Fleet Captains.