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BobJ
03-10-2013, 10:27 AM
In an e-mail this morning, someone asked about a recent rating change to one of our regulars. The way the question was asked made me realize that some don't know how local boats get their PHRF ratings. My response might be helpful to others new to the playground:
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We need to go under the Cone of Silence and discuss how PHRF ratings are determined. Here's part of a post I wrote during the 2008 SHTP: "One may ask, "Since it has such a big effect on the race's outcome, how does a boat receive its rating?" Ah, THERE'S the rub! For some boats that's where the beer gets stuck in the screen door and for others "yes, Victoria, there really IS a Santa Claus!" I could quote you all the fancy formulas but that's the gist of it."

Seriously, there are three principal ways to determine the time adjustments for handicapping sailboats:

1) Measurement rules (like ORR or IRC of today, or IOR of the past). A certified measurer has a boat hauled out and accurately weighed, then takes a bunch of measurements of hull, spars, sails, etc. This all goes into a computer formula which spits out a rating. The formulas are secret but it doesn't take long for yacht designers to figure out what design tweaks will cause a boat to measure favorably under a rule. This historically leads to "arms races" with boats being built specifically to get a good rating. Sometimes it causes good boats to be built and sometimes not. For example, boats designed to measure well under IOR were pinched at bow and stern and were often "broach coaches" downwind.

2) Performance Handicap Racing Fleets (PHRF) - what we use. Literally, a few local sailors get together and decide what a boat should rate. That's it! We are blessed with a really good committee here (NorCal PHRF) made up of yacht designers, sailmakers and other industry pro's who have been doing this a long time and who try to stay unbiased. Under PHRF, boats are rated based on "observed performance." PHRF assumes a well-prepared boat (good sails, clean bottom and well-sailed). The committee gives most weight to how the design is rated elsewhere in the country but they also look at how it compares to similar boats based on its weight and other dimensions. Then they observe its performance in local races and if necessary, adjust its rating.

3) Golf handicaps. A club will start with PHRF ratings and then adjust them through the season based on race results. In theory this encourages new skippers to race since the best skippers don't keep winning. The problem is it removes the incentive to prepare the boat well, practice and get better. It rewards consistent mediocrity so few clubs use it.

Sometimes politics get involved and a biased or less-than-clear-thinking PHRF committee starts doing #3 with #2. A committee member's buddy thinks his rating is unfair, or somebody he doesn't like wins too often. All of a sudden your rating gets adjusted and you don't know why. This happened to me after I won my division in the 2006 SH Farallones. Someone close to NorCal PHRF complained about RAGS' rating and they adjusted it. I looked into it, discovered the committee was given erroneous information and was able to get it changed back.

(A bunch of history about a particular boat has been edited out.)

Wow - I haven't gone for my first cup of coffee yet.