Yet again a great deal of work has gone into TopYacht since the last major update 12 months ago. Some of the changes are obvious, some are under the bonnet and will not be readily noticed.

Key obvious changes.

• Before we start. There is a new installer. You must download this from the downloads page of this site. This installs TY into the folders that are needed to allow proper functionality (and support) of TY under Win 7 and Win Vista. The new TY can be installed along side the existing Tyacht. The only gotchas is that if you open a database in the new version and then later open it in the old version you will get a pop up warning that the data has been updated. If you ignore the message it still works find under the old Tyacht.The exes go into C:\Program Files\TopYacht10 and all other files go into C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\TopYacht ('Globals' under Vista).
• Before we startnumber 2. This new generation TY is built on the assumption that each boat will only be in the Master List just once. You can add that boat into any Series then change the characteristics eg class of the boat in the series. This allows TY to properly interact with TES (see below) and stops all the hassles of duplicate boats.
• The Series and races are now displayed “Top Down” meaning the latest race is on top as is the latest Series. This had been requested by a number of clubs who have a large number of series and/or large number of races. It makes sense to have the latest one at the top of the list rather than having to scroll down the screen.
• Similarly the Web uploads are now displayed o the Web with the latest on top for the same reason.
• For clubs with multiple databases the “Database Select” screen now allows sorting by clicking on the column headings.
• We are now providing much more “modern” looking templates for the Internet uploads. These do require us to upload a “style” sheet and a JavaScript file to you web site for them to function properly. For an example look at the results for Hamilton Island Race Week 2009.
• For many clubs the “View Results” screen will now come up much faster.
• You can now nominate some race(s) to be “not discardable”. This has been requested by a number of keel boat clubs.
• Pursuit racing can now be done on at the Series level (as previously) or on a race by race basis. A growing number of clubs are alternating mass starts with pursuit starts so the new race by race pursuit option will suit them well.
• When you are in ‘pursuit race’ mode, the bottom on many screens changes to Aqua. This is to draw attention to the fact the places and calculated on and presented in Finish Time order rather than Corrected time order.
• The display options for View Results toggle between Pursuit and Standard mode dependant on the race type.
• To use the race by race pursuit option – do not set the series to Pursuit but set the relevant races to pursuit on the Race Setup screen.
• The Pursuit Race offset time screen now shows the actual start time as well as the offset.
• The offset screen now allow you to manually move a very slow boat to have a negative offset so the others aren’t waiting around for many minutes before their start.
• A Warning now appears when processing Pursuit race if one or more boats does not have a valid offset time.
• Pursuit race results now show the offset time plus the next race offset time.
• The later can be hidden if desired. This is part of a wider implementation of the “Display/Hide” function to most report screens now.
• Additional HC types have been added.
• The HC graphs screen now allows you to see two different HC for each boat simultaneously and thus compare the HCing methodology.
• As an aside- many clubs are now moving to Exponential HCing rather than running average. This is because it is much easier for sailors to understand and has a number of advantages to those who have to administer the HCs. (Paper available on TY Web site.)
• There will shortly be a totally updated Help file available for download for our Web site.
• Also due soon, a number of downloadable samples databases to show various TY functionality. If you have such a database then please contact Rod so we can add it to the samples.
• TY’s inbuilt voice recorder has been further refined. This allows you to record finish times directly over a telephone line and then play them back piece by piece like a Dictaphone. For details of an appropriate telephone interface contact TY support.
• The popular “StopWach” facility has had added functionality including new sort facilities.
• Similarly the csv finish time importer now allows enhanced sorting to cross check imported data against existing boats.
• The csv entrants importers have been combined into one very flexible, easier to understand screen.
• You can now also import Note2 plus Not3 plus Design.
• Relevant Penalty Places now allow you to include Casual Entrants in the calculation.
• A number of new fields have been made available for the csv importation of entrants; these include Design, TES-BoatID, and two additional note fields.
• For clubs who use the “different laps for different division” option; the comparisons are now done based on the maximum number of laps done by any division rather than the default of 4 as previously.
• TopYacht had been made more interactive with TES – the Topyacht Entry System that is being used by a slowly growing number of keelboat clubs for the season and race by race entries. It now allows one click downloads of Series/Race entrants. It will soon allow single click uploads of all HC types to TES.

TopYacht Software is produced by McCubbin Electronics Pty Ltd, trading as TopYacht.  All other products mentioned are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies.

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