Coding classes on the Isle of Wight

The RYA's guidance sets out the calculation: "Corrected time = (Elapsed time x most laps x 1000) / (PN x actual laps)". When everyone sails the same number of laps, that becomes simply elapsed time times 1,000 divided by the boat's Portsmouth Number. A fast boat has a low number and a slow one a high number. In the RYA's list, a 29er is 900, an ILCA 7 1103, a Topper 1369 and an Optimist 1629. The learner types in ten classes and writes a function that turns a table of finishing times into a ranked result.

On the water, the 29er finished almost thirty-nine minutes before the Optimist; across our ten boats, times on the water were spread over 2,332 seconds. After correction the whole fleet sits within 157.9 seconds, and the result depends on how well each crew sailed its own boat, not on which boat was fastest. That is the whole point of handicapping, and it is a clean example of normalisation: dividing out an effect you do not want to judge so that you can compare what you do.

Now the sharp end. Four of our boats finish within 5.5 seconds of each other after correction: RS Aero 7 at 3,277.8 seconds, Solo 3,280.1, ILCA 7 3,282.9 and 29er 3,283.3. The RYA's list shows the ILCA 7 number moved by one point this year. In our race, raising the ILCA 7 by one point, to 1104, lifts it from third to second; lowering it to 1102 drops it to fourth. A published number that looks like a technicality decides places, which is why handicap lists are revised with data every year.

So an Isle of Wight teenager should learn to code in 2026 to see how much a neat-looking answer depends on the numbers behind it. The longer argument is in why teenagers should still learn to code in 2026.