A PY return is a set of handicap race results that a club submits to the RYA, recording which classes raced, their elapsed times and the conditions. The RYA uses these returns to keep Portsmouth Numbers up to date.

Why do Portsmouth Numbers change each year?

Numbers change because the RYA recalculates them from the latest race returns. As boats develop, fleets grow or shrink, and more data arrives, the numbers are adjusted to stay fair.

How do I submit a PY return?

Sailboat Racing can upload your results directly to PY Online with one click. Alternatively, you can upload results manually through the PY Online portal using an Excel template.

How Portsmouth Yardstick returns work

A PY return is a set of handicap race results a club sends to the RYA. The RYA aggregates returns from clubs across the country each year and uses them to recalculate Portsmouth Numbers, which is why the published list changes from one year to the next and stays accurate as boats and fleets evolve.

What a return contains

A useful return records, for each handicap race: the classes that took part and each boat's elapsed time and number of laps. The more races and the more classes that are submitted, the more reliable the recalculated numbers become.

Why returns matter

Portsmouth Numbers are only as good as the data behind them. A class with very few returns may carry a provisional or limited-data number; a class with thousands of results across many clubs will have a well-established number. Submitting returns is how the whole fleet keeps the system fair for everyone.

How the numbers are recalculated

The RYA compares how classes actually performed against each other across all the returns, and nudges each number towards what the results imply. The change in any given year is usually small, because the system favours stability so clubs are not forced to re-handicap dramatically every season.

How to submit a return

Sailboat Racing uploads your results directly to PY Online with one click. All your race data is already in the app, so there is nothing to export or reformat. After uploading, you will need to log in to PY Online to validate the submission: PY Online checks each race meets the minimum requirements (for example, at least three finishers) before accepting it into the national dataset.

If you are not using Sailboat Racing, the PY Online portal also accepts results via an Excel template, which you can download from the portal and upload once completed.

Sailboat Racing keeps every race result in one place and submits PY returns in one click. Explore the app.

Last updated: 2026-06-03