Carbon Mast PHRF rating

[Gray Shannahan]

My boat suffered a 3 point penalty over the other U20's on the Chesapeake Bay because I have a carbon mast and the others have aluminum. Apparently the smallest increment of change on a rating is 3. One of the other owners suggested that they were under the impression that the Ultimate 20 class did not impose a penalty on the carbon mast. The handicapper's board told me that if i can supply good supporting evidence that there is no advantage that they may change the rating.

Have I been fairly rated? Should I have the same rating as an aluminum mast boat? If so, any help with a supporting argument?

I'm going to be primarily racing PHRF so I want every advantage I can get

[Travis Gregory]

If the only difference is a carbon rig there should be no penalty.  U20's race one design against each other with both rigs competitively.

Some with carbon rigs will go with bigger sails for PHRF, which would require a correction.   

[TimPorter]

The prevailing thoughts are that the carbon rig is actually not as competitive as the aluminum rig.  Someone with more history might have better details.

I personally think that is a bunch of hullabaloo and I don't see any difference assuming you have the right sails. 

To answer the original question though, is that you are not rated correctly.  You should request an ODR rating as your boat does fall within the ODR rules.  Should be 138 / 141. 

[Travis Gregory]

The Lake Norman U20's are marginally faster. 

We rate 144 in Utah.

[Mark Allen]

Hello Gray,
  The development of the mast was to continue the one design aspect of the class. The goal was to allow the change to carbon and use the current sails for the boat. That didn't quite work out. The Doyle Boston team did a good amount of testing with similar sails and conditions and determined the carbon mast had no advantage over the Aluminum except in short chop. The stiffer carbon would not pump as much as the aluminum because of the stiffness. On the other hand the aluminum is more tunable then the carbon allowing it to perform in a variety of wind ranges. The class weighed several masts and the carbon is a good bit lighter. As anyone who has put one up by themselves can verify. there was significant talk about adding corrector weights for the carbon rigs but the class rejected that after seeing real world results and the testing from Doyle Boston. If you look at winner of the NA's over the last 6 years I think the winner are evenly split by carbon and aluminum. That might be your best data set to present for your rating other than the class recognizes the carbon with no correction.