Occasionally I'm asked to explain how the "Lapse" time column in a race result is calculated so, here goes! Lapse Time is the True Lapse Time on Winner. It is the time that a boat would need to shave-off its elapsed time in order to have the same corrected time as that of the winning boat in a race result. Lets look at the following result for 2 boats, Boat A, the winner and Boat B. The calculation and reasoning remains the same for any further boats.

Plc	Boat	IRC TCF	Time of Finish	Elasped Time	Corrected Time	True Lapse on Winner	Points this Race
1	Boat A	0.908	11:56:51	1:46:51	1:37:02		1.00
2	Boat B	0.943	12:21:25	2:11:25	2:03:56	28:32	2.00
3	etc

The calculation is as follows .... For "Boat A" elapsed time    =    1:46:51    =    106.85 min corrected time    =    0.908 ( 106.85 )    =    97.02 min ( which is the 1:37:02 above) For "Boat B" elapsed time    =    2:11:25    =    131.42 min corrected time    =    0.943 ( 131.42 )    =    123.93 min ( which is the 2:03:56 above)

So, "Boat B" needs to SHAVE OFF 28:32 min:sec (28.547 min) from its elapsed time in order to have the same CORRECTED TIME as the WINNER ("Boat A"). This definition is fine if one is interested in the time to shave off one's elapsed time to win a race, but I find that most competitors are primarily interested in the simple elapsed time differences between themselves and other boats.