Starting in the new year the Sailing Committee have agreed to a small change in the race SIGNON system to allow competitors to log their retirement from a race or remove their entry before a race has started. This will affect both OODs and competitors who will need to know how to use and respond to these "new buttons" - read on to learn more.
Competitors .. .
After new year's eve you will be able to remove your race entry from the SIGNON system BEFORE the first signal in the start sequence. This might be useful if you decide at the last minute to sail with a different rig, or a different boat, or not to sail at all due to the weather conditions. To do this - find the boat you entered in the normal way - you should then see something like the screen below. Simply click the "Remove Entry" button to remove the entry - the system will remove your entry and display the page as if you hadn't entered - allowing you to change your entry or enter a completely different boat.
AFTER the start sequence has begun you can notify the OOD that you have - so that the OOD is aware. Again, find the boat you entered in the normal way - you should see a screen similar to the one below. Click the "Retire" button to mark the entry as retired - the system will confirm this with a RETIRED message in the orange status box.
OODs .. .
The impact for OODs from these changes is fairly limited and hopefully it should make their job a little easier.
If a competitor deletes their entry before the first start sequence signal, this will be processed automatically - with no OOD action required. An eagle-eyed OOD may notice a boat disappearing from the entry list - don't worry this is just a competitor removing their entry.
OODs will however need to check for retirements that have been logged. On the RESULTS page you will see a new button labelled "Load Retirements". It will be coloured red (and flash for a few seconds) if there are retirements to be loaded and will be black if there are no retirements to load.
BEFORE you save the results - click this button to load any retirements logged by competitors.
Enjoy your "new buttons"
Mark