Webscorer is an app used with a smartphone or tablet to time races. We at Soundrowers embraced the technology. I willingly accepted it without ever having timed a race before. The Webscorer videos misleadingly showed one person timing the races ("Oh, this is easy!"). In real life timing
was a high anxiety task at the 2017 Commencement Bay race, partly related to the
boats finishing very far away from the timers on the pier, such that we
couldn't discern their Tyvek race numbers, provided by Todd, which I
mistakenly assented to use. We couldn't see those numbers
taped flat against the boat hulls. We will never use those numbers
again if Sound Rowers' stand up numbers are available.
After a near fiasco in timing the Commencement Bay race, and the Budd Inlet race, I understand timing with Webscorer. Bev Storb saved the day at Commencement. Timing on paper with a stopwatch requires two or three people, one to record times, another to note racer numbers and a back-up to help figure out the order in a close finish. Timing with Webscorer also requires at least two people, one to press the time button to record a finish time as each racer finishes and another to record racer numbers. The Webscorer advantage is that it has the names pre-attached to the bib numbers and can upload much faster after bib numbers are assigned to finish times. I open the app, assign bibs as needed and go to the start screen, press start when the horn goes off. For a small race, I have one other person who will record the finish sequence on paper, disregarding the times. Larger races may require a third person to provide backup for the finish sequence. At race end, we tag each finish time with a racer per the paper sequence notes.
