PHRF Ratings

[Nate Selstad]

I was kind of dismayed by the "gift" "feel guilty" comments about PHRF ratings and the "i would look at the quality of the ratings committe ".  One of the primary reasons most of us chose the U20 is the OD racing. That is why we travel all over North America.  We choose where to move based on how many boats are in the area.  I just lost my readymade 5 boat travelling fleet so I have to race PHRF way more often which totally blows.  The only worse would be if my club changed my rating based on U20 group listing, believe me the J80 sailors are watching because Tim and I are trying to convert them!  That is the same reason I won't protest the rating of a carbon fiber boat in the Lake Michigan catchment area because I want all U20s to have the best ratings they can.  Ratings are science and perforamce but also politics and lobbying to say otherwise is naive (is that how you spell evian?)  It is hard to invite a member of the ratings commitee out on your U20 as a guest mainsail trimmer.  Please no more "OMG, what a gift!" talk on yahoo, unless it to complain about the cherry rating the SF boats get considering how much wind they have!!! 

Nate

 

[Gregg Henning]

I would have to agree with Nate, it has taken a long time to work with PHRF Committees with data to get where the U20 rating is today.  The stigma of sportboats scared PHRF Committees for a long time with their speed potential.  Now they are more looking at the boat and the average wind speed for the area to make a better decision on a rating.

Negative talk is just destructive to where we have gotten with the boat and the class.

[Michael Eisenberg]

Let me tell you, my 138 OD / 132 PHRF rating in SoCal is no gift.  I can't sail to it in our conditions.

[André Labelle]

138 OD.  What does a J24 rate ?

[Michael Eisenberg]

All of the J24s (about a dozen with current certificates) in SoCal rate 174.

[Billy Ellis]

J24 174. If that is a bench mark then the u20 should be 141 to 144. Our base is 144 which I think is about right. When I had my first u20 I started at 126. I would have to agree about negative talk concerning good ratings. Good rating = more boats. More boats = more OD possibilities. More OD possibilities = more fun. More fun = more boats. Enough boats = screw phrf. PHRF is not a ends it is a means.

[Charlie Cushing]

We have to sail with a PHRF rating of 135 here on the West Coast of Florida PHRF area.  Which means we are level racing 30 ft boats.  Hard to sell boats with that kind of rating.

[Chuck Ballew]

Charlie, 147 doesn't sound very bad at all now. I just need to bring my A game to the keelboat races at Western Carolina Sail Club. We have fleets of J-24, J-80 and Melges 24 that are tough to correct over.

Thanks for the input.

[Gregg Henning]

We have to sail with a PHRF rating of 135 here on the West Coast of Florida PHRF area.  Which means we are level racing 30 ft boats.  Hard to sell boats with that kind of rating.

It's time to go talk to your PHRF Committee in the area and ask for some relief.  That is an old rating and should be looked at.  If no one says anything they will not automatically change it.

[Billy Ellis]

Not really related but during this weekends regatta a Melges 32 started really late ( by 10 or more minutes.) We were well up the course on our second beat when they caught us. Talk about jet wash. I felt like Maverick in the scene where Goose got killed in Top Gun when they finally went by. That is one seriously fast boat. Unfortunately for them they never got the course from the race committee before they started and they DNFed. Fortunately for me we kicked ass and corrected 7:24 over a Melges 24 and 10:30 over a Olsen 40 to take second in class and 2nd in Fleet on a 15 mile course. Now if I could just do something about that 120 rating on the Tripp 26.