New Event Location Capability

As you may have noticed, in the past the location of an event was assumed to be the same location as the information on the Organizer's Club Information page. Since many event's were organized by a class or YRA with offices in a different location than the actual event. To help with this "dis-location", we've added an event location to all events. Simply list the address for the event and the event will be listed on Regatta Network and RegattaLink with the correct location.

Let Your Entrants and Their Supporters Give A Little.

Several times a year, we are approached by clubs or organizations running charity events. They've asked for a method to have their entrants reach out to their supporters to raise money for a worthy cause.

To answer this need, we've developed a Pledge console that let's supporters pledge a donation to the chosen charity to support the efforts of a specific entrant. The way the system works is simple --

• As sailors enter, they are automatically added to the pledge page.
• They can then direct their supporters to the pledge page to pledge support for their entry. And they are offered the opportunity to complete their pledge directly with the charity.
  
• The progress of each competitor is displayed on a pledge "Leader Board
• And as the organizer you can provide the charity with the contact information on all pledges, so they can follow up with a thank you or reminder.
  

To see the pledge system in action, please the CBS Charity Regatta on www.yachtclubdemo.com,
Or you can view the pledge form and tote board from the entry form here

Working With Waitlists...

For many youth events, capacity constraints and wait lists are a fact of life. Many facilities can only accommodate a set number of boats. Wait lists in the Regatta Network system are based on the number of paid entrants received for a specific fee. As a reminder, the Waitlist Limit is established when setting up the fee, and will allow entry into your event until the limit is reached.



Once that limit has been reached, and entrants are being actively wait listed, we recommend you revise the Waitlist Limit downward, say from 50 to 35 or 40. This will let you delete entrants that have to drop out and override the wait list status for entrants currently wait listed. Otherwise when you delete a paid entrant, the waitlist will open up for the public, and let anyone jump in line in front of the wait listed entrants.

Step-by-Step: To override the waitlist status for an entrant --
> Click "Edit Event Entries"
> Click on the entrants name
> At the bottom of the next page, click the check box to "Override waitlist for this registrant "
> Click button to Modify this entrant.
> Notify the Entrant either through the email console, or directly to edit their registration form.

Extend Your Wi-Fi Reach

We've recently begun testing a new High Power Wireless-N USB Adapter from Amped Wireless. This system combines a high power WiFi amplifier and a high gain directional antenna to extend the range of wirless connectivity up to 4x over normal. In many cases, this could extend the range of your laptop on the committee boat to reach a WiFi Hotspot at the club.

The unit is designed to allow you to connect to wireless networks from "extreme distances" and is weatherized for use on boats, RV's etc. The antenna connects to your laptop using a dual USB cable for maximum signal strength, or can connect using a single USB port for standard power and includes 26.5 feet of cable and a variety of mounting options - Wall, pole/mast, or tabletop.

Since it's usefulness depends on the environment at your club and RC boat (distance from the club, trees and other obstructions between the antenna and the WiFi hotspot, we are offering our test antenna on a "lend/lease" program for clubs to try it out before they have to commit to buying it. Basically for the cost of shipping both ways, you can test this system at your location to decide if it is a good solution for your club. Please contact Ken Taylor with questions or to arrange a test.

Scoring on the Go

Of course, you've always been able to score an event on Regatta Network using a laptop and a Wi-Fi or cellular connection. However lately, clubs have asked about the possibility of scoring using an iPhone, Blackberry, or iPad.

The answer is simply, Yes. Scoring is possible on current versions of both an iPhone or Blackberry. Due to the small screen size, scoring on an hand-held device like an iPhone isn't always as pleasant as scoring on a laptop or even an iPad, but it is possible.

There is a pdf tutorial on iPhone scoring HERE.



Or there is a short video tutorial on scoring with an iPad HERE

Stay tuned for further developments on mobile scoring options on Regatta Network.

Simplified Fleet Split Console

A new way to quickly and easily create your fleet splits and move boats from one class to another. A single page shows all entrants, is sortable by handicap/rating and uses a simple drop down to change their class assignments. To use the Fleet/Class Management console, have entrants register in a "parent" fleet, say PHRF. After you've received a number of entries, set up your new "child" classes (PHRF-SpinA, PHRF-SpinB, etc.). When you open the Fleets/Classes console, click on the column header "Rating" and then select the appropriate class from the drop down for each entrant. Click the "Save Fleet Assignments" button at the bottom of the page, and you're ready to go!

txt 2 ur registrants

Email is a great way to communicated to your registrants before and after the event, but not everyone has the ability to recieve email messages during the event. As such, we're pleased to annouce a new texting console to send sms messages to your registrants regarding updates on you events. This is a great way to keep entrants informed about schedule changes, postpones or protest schedules.


During registration, the entrant will have the option to "opt in" to receive text messages from your event. To send a message select the SMS Text console from the Event Tools menu. You may select all entrants or a specific class to send a short SMS message to them. These messages are limited to 160 characters and will only be sent to those that elected to opt-in.


Because the messages are sent through a third party provider, please only use the console for official messages, rather than news or "social" updates. All messages will come from 258-17 (the Regatta Network "Bulk Account") so try to make it clear that the message is regarding your event in the first few words.

Club Level Data Downloads

As you know, you've always been able to download the entrant data from a number of reports or the event data feed, however this data has always been event specific. So if you wanted to send everyone an Christmas Card that registered for a regatta in the past year, you had to aggregate the data from several events, and then "clean" the data to remove duplicates.

We've added another club level applet that will allow you to create a registrant data file from all you events within a user selectable date range. This file looks for duplicates based on First Name, Last Name and Email. So if someone registers with their G-mail address one time and their work email the next time, they will be counted as 2 entries. So it's not perfect, but it should cut down on the time required to build your mailing or email list.

Closing Time

Not the Lyle Lovett song, but closing time for registration. You can now set the closing time for registration to a specific date and time. On a new or existing event, simply select edit event information, and the time dialog box is immediately below the last day to register. As always, the server is in Central time zone, so adjust your closing time accordingly.

Club Level E-mail Consol

A new feature available in your Regatta Network club account is the club wide e-mail console.

The club e-mail allows the user to send bulk e-mails to all participants in multiple current or past events through your club account. The feature may be used as a marketing tool for future events by e-mailing past competitors reminding them of your upcoming schedule. The club email settings can be changed to include registrants from one or more event, one or more fleets in a specific event, and also allows the option to email the crew as well as skipper.

The club console can be found on the Web Applets and Tools page under the Club Management menu on the left side of the club account page. The user then will select the Launch Club E-mail Console option. In the console, choose the event and settings specific to the e-mail that you want to spend, type you message and send the e-mail. The system will delete duplicate entries for any one email, and uses a bulk email server to send your messages. (No more waiting for the system to complete sending).

New Look to Entrant Lists -- An "Avatar"

As an option, you can now let registrants upload a picture of themselves or their boat when they register for an event or a regatta. To use this option when you are setting up your next regatta, enter the information about what type of photo and other details in the Additional Race Documents to be Uploaded section on the Edit Event Information page, and let us know that you’d like to include a photo record with your event.

Adding these instructions in the “Additional Race Documents to be Uploaded” text box enables registrants to upload documents that you require as part of the registration process. The registrants will be prompted to upload the document after the initial registration page and before the complete payment page. And naturally they will be able to come back and edit their registration and complete the upload process later if they wish.

Please click HERE for a short demo.

PHRF Divisions

As you may know, ordinarily Regatta Network supports multiple starts, and distances for individual handicap fleets, with each fleet scored independently from the others. Recently several clubs have requested the ability to have a PHRF event scored both as individual sub-fleets or divisions (PHRF A, PHRF B, etc) and as a single fleet for an overall winner on corrected time.

To accomplish this, obviously all classes would need to sail the same distance, however you can set up a single master class(PHRF for instance), and then assign sub-fleets through the Manage Fleet Divisions console. If you are going to have separate starts for each sub-fleet, let us know so we can enable the recording of division start times.



Then when you're finished scoring, the results page will be include the option to view the division results or the overall results.



See the sample of the the separate results HERE (Scroll down to the PHRF Fleet for the division results.)

For the past year, we've offered the option to upload event documents to your event. This feature can be used for event logos, waiver/release forms, burgees, and NORs. In the past, this was a four step process --

1. Upload the document as a PDF, JPEG, or GIF file


2. View the newly uploaded document


3. Copy the URL for the document and


4. Paste it into the Event Information console

This multi step process confused a lot of users, so we have recently taken steps to streamline the process. Now when you upload a document, you can choose from the standard document types for uploaded documents, and the system will automatically copy the URL into the appropriate field for the document selected.

One of the frequent questions we receive is, "Why can't I upload MS Word documents directly to the site.? The answer is simple: There are a number of know virus' that can be carried in MS Word macros, and to avoid the security risk to you and your entrants, we decided to block .doc or .docx uploads.

Of course any word document can be converted to a pdf for free online at adobe.com or with a free program called Primo pdf (http://www.primopdf.com/) or saved as an web page using the "Save As" option.

Adding Graphics to your Forms

As many of you know, there are two graphical areas on the standard registration, entrant list, and results pages generated by Regatta Network. The club burgee space is generally in the top left hand corner and is set in the club information area of the console. And the event logo, which is set on the Event Information page. as shown below:

The alternative would be to show the sponsor's logo in one slot and the event logo in the other with the club burgee incorporated into your entry form comments, like the entry form from Long Beach Race Week...

But if you have dual sponsors, or a major sponsor, you may want to go with a full width event logo, and disable the club burgee. The ideal size for a single banner event logo is about 650 pixels. The Gulf Coast Sailing Clubs's Porsche Cup is a good example of a single banner logo:

While we're on the subject of image sizes, I've found that Burgee and event logos seem to work best if they are about 150 pixels tall. If you need to size an image or photo, there are a number of free utilities that can resize images from your desktop. Windows used to offer a "Power Toy" for XP that would resize one or more photos within windows explorer.

What is that red *?

Many of you have asked why some sailors have a * on your fleets split or scratch sheets. To comply with US SAILING's COPPA guidelines, all personal information for entrants under 18 is hidden from public view except Name, Boat Class, and Yacht Club. So rather than leave the field blank, we've added a * symbol to let you know that a) there is data and b) to protect the entrants privacy.

Naturally, the management reports have complete information on the entrants, but these are only viewable from the management console.

Results for a single Class

As you may know, when running a regatta with multiple classes, there are times when you would like to print and post the results for a single class. Either because you're waiting for the other class to complete their races, or waiting for their protests to be complete. Previously, you had to either print partial results, or cut and paste the results into another document.

At the request of one of our organizers, you can now print or link to the results for a single class simply by clicking on the class name on the standard US SAILING Regatta Network results page.

Printing and Distributing Results

UPDATE (7/23/09) -- At the request of several organizers, you can now print the results of a single class, by simply clicking on the class name in the standard USRN results pages. This makes it much easier to post results for other classes while waiting for the results of protests for other classes.

A couple of tricks when printing results to post on the bulletin board at your club or event. Because every browser, and printer combination are a little different, it's best to preview the results before you print them. Results are set to print each class on an individual page, depending on the size of the class, and the number or races, you may find that portrait or landscape printing format may work best. On Internet Explorer you can also size the results to fit the page better.

From the print preview page, select a specific percentage as opposed to the default "Shrink to Fit" which squeezes the page length to fit into an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet (and results in 4 or 5 point type), try selecting 100% or 90 % to try to maximize the results table into the available space.

Also depending on your printer and paper availability, using legal sized paper may be a better option.

When sending your results to local media outlets, there is link to the the results in a standard media format. This lists the results as a text file in the format most media prefer, as opposed to a tabular format.

Pos,Bow/Sail, Boat, Skipper, Yacht Club, Results, Total Points
1. 86 / 1510, , Scott Young, AYC, 1-1-1-8- ; 11
2. 02 / 203, Dieselsnack, Rob Johnston, RCYC, 2-4-3-4- ; 13
3. 51 / 161, Daddy's Boat, David Smedley, RCYC, 6-2-5-1- ; 14
4. 09 / 665, SLO-POKE, Eric Faust, AYC, 5-6-2-3- ; 16
5. 21 / 709, Keep Smiling, Marvin Beckmann, Houston Yacht Club, 4-5-4-6- ; 19
6. 17 / 279, Fast Lane, Max / Jake Scott, Rush Creek Yacht Club, 3-7-11-2- ; 23

New Scoring System with Sail/Bow Number Selector

UPDATE! A new scoring console has been added to the standard event console that includes a Sail/Bow Number Selector and a one-handed scoring solution for one-design and handicap classes.

This system automatically prunes the list of potential sail/bow number matches as you type in the number. It ignores country code prefixes, so there's no "cleaning" of sail numbers necessary and when you've found the number you're looking for a simple press of the right arrow moves the competitor to the scored window. To score a boat with a "short" bow number (i.e. -- Sail number 16 of a group of 16, 167, 1616 and 16617), simply type the ":" to indicate that you are done entering and press the right arrow. On events scoring based on bow numbers, since these events use a bow#/Sail# combination, please use the "/" to indicate you are finished entering and press the right arrow.

There is also an option now for Opti/Laser events to key off ONLY the last 4 of the sail number. So once again, if the number is truncated (383 for example) use the ":" or "/" keys to indicate you are finished.

For handicap events, the time dialog box will now accept a period rather than require a colon, so you can enter hh.mm.ss rather than hh:mm:ss and simply pressing the enter key will move the competitor into the scored entrant window. There's a brief tutorial on the new scoring system online HERE.

Setting a late fee based on a specific time or time zone.

As most of you know, the US SAILING Regatta Network server resides at Rackspace Managed Hosting data center in Dallas. The advantage of this location is it's equally accessible for most of the county. The disadvantage is that when a discount or late fee is imposed on a specific day or time the server was always either too early (or too late depending on you time zone) or you had to remember change the registration closing date to shut down registration.

We've added a time function to the Edit Event Fees section which will allow you to set the specific time you'd like to impose a late fee or discount.



Since the server is in the central time zone, you will need to manually adjust the time to suit the time zone of your club or event.

Waitlists and Managing the Waitlist

Some of you may already know, that we can limit the number of entrants for any specific class. This allows X number of entrants in a specific class and after the threshold has been reached, any additional entrants are able to register as a waitlisted competitor and not complete the payment process.

Recently, it became apparent that we needed a better method to allow these waitlisted entrants to complete the registration process. We added a "waitlist override" to the Edit Entries Console on events that are using a waitlist.



Simply clicking the box to modify the entrant will allow 1 more person to complete the registration process for your event. If you've reserved X entries for a specific club or organization, you can then delete one of the place holders.

It is important to note that the waitlist is based on PAID entries. Someone that registers early and waits to pay later may find themselves bumped onto the waitlist. Also, if you ask us to increase your waitlist threshold, it opens up registration to everyone (waitlisted or new entries). So if you want to limit access to a specific or group from the waitlist, the override is the best method.