It was almost a perfect day to race yesterday, for the Quintin Head 2016. Sunny and dry, not too cold, no wind and a race start at a very convenient 11:00 a.m.
This race is one that is run by the club (as you might guess from the name!) and so club members pitch in to help with timing, marshalling and everything else involved in running a race. The club ran a training session for the timing team on the Thursday before the race. They have been using the same system now for several years, so for some people this is a refresher. The way they do it is to use the timing equipment while watching a video of the race finish in the previous year. This irons out the muddle that can happen when several crews finish close together.
The timing went perfectly on the day. The times were available in real time. This year the Chief Timekeeper, Roger Hine, set up a TV screen in the club room to display the results during the race. We had just a few corrections to make at the end, as is normal. This happens because, in the end, the matching of a time to a crew is manual. The way we do it is to go through the different sequences carefully to see if there are any discrepancies. This is where, for example, one timer has written down 112 and another has 122. It doesn't mean we don't know. In almost all cases you can eliminate an obvious error. In case of real doubt we can refer to the video. Then the times get updated with the definitive sequence.