Enthusiasm high for forecast scoring

The 2026 Newport Bermuda Race had quite the scoring fiasco, finally sorting out the winners after three days. The source of the problem was bad inputs for the Forecast Time Correction Factor (FCT-F) which determines the optimal finish times based on weather forecasts, but despite the chaos, the biennial event has not lost enthusiasm for the system.

“The Bermuda Race Organizing Committee (BROC) and its Technical Committee remain fully committed to forecast based scoring,” explained BROC Chair Andrew Kallfelz. “Post race analysis objectively proves a significant improvement in fairness compared to Performance Curve Scoring.

“We intend to continue to leverage the full expertise of our members, domain experts, and partners, and use the best available technology (forecasts, VPPs, and route optimization software) and enhanced processing protocols, to reliably enable forecast scoring.

“Our committee members, competitors, and the broader racing community hold BROC to the highest expectations for fairness, accuracy, and transparency. We look forward to completing and reporting on our investigation and are confident that the clarity gained from this incident will help all race organizers prevent similar issues in the future.”