2 min read · Updated 5 July 2026
Most yacht racing uses the Low Point system: score your finishing place as points, add them up, drop your worst, and the lowest total wins. It's simple once you know it, and it's how a series of races becomes an overall result. This sits alongside the handicap systems that decide the finishing order in the first place.
The Low Point system
The core idea:
- First = 1 point, second = 2, third = 3, and so on.
- Points are added up across the races in a series.
- The lowest total wins — low is good.
So the aim is to finish as high as possible, as often as possible, keeping your total down.
Discards (drops)
A discard (or drop) is your worst result, excluded from the total — allowing for one bad race from a mistake, breakage or bad luck. Many series let you drop your worst score (or more, once enough races are sailed), so a single disaster doesn't ruin the series. The number of discards is set in the sailing instructions.
Not finishing or disqualified
A boat that doesn't start, doesn't finish, retires or is disqualified gets a heavy score — typically the number of entries plus one, worse than finishing last. That's why:
- Finishing, even poorly, usually beats not finishing.
- A discard is valuable — it can remove one such heavy score.
Scoring vs handicapping
Keep the two straight:
- Handicapping decides the finishing order within a race (comparing boats of different speeds by corrected time).
- Scoring turns those orders across races into points and an overall result.
The takeaway
Race scoring is Low Point: places become points, totalled across a series, worst race dropped, lowest total wins. Understand it and a regatta's results table makes sense. See what is a sailing regatta for the event context, and the sailing terms glossary for the vocabulary.
Frequently asked questions
- How is yacht racing scored?
- Most yacht racing uses the Low Point system, where a boat scores points equal to its finishing position — one point for first, two for second, three for third and so on — across a series of races, and the boat with the fewest total points wins. It is called low point because low is good: finishing first as often as possible keeps your total down. A series is usually made up of several races, and the scores are added across them to decide the overall result.
- What is a drop in yacht racing scoring?
- A drop, or discard, is a boat's worst race result that is excluded from its series total, allowing for one or more bad races caused by a mistake, gear failure or bad luck. Many series let boats discard their worst score, or more than one once enough races are sailed, so a single disaster does not ruin the whole series. The number of drops is set in the sailing instructions and depends on how many races are held.
- What happens if a boat doesn't finish or is disqualified?
- A boat that does not start, does not finish, retires or is disqualified receives a heavy score, typically points equal to the number of boats entered plus one, which is worse than finishing last among the boats that completed the race. This is why finishing races, even poorly, is usually better than not finishing, and it is also why a discard is valuable, since it can remove one such heavy score. The exact scores for these outcomes are defined in the racing rules.
- What is the difference between scoring and handicapping?
- Scoring is how finishing positions are turned into points and totalled across a series, while handicapping is how boats of different speeds are compared within a single race to decide those finishing positions. In handicap racing, corrected times determine who beat whom in each race, and then the scoring system turns those results into points. So handicapping decides the order in a race, and scoring turns the orders across races into an overall result.