[Public-list] PHRF rating

[Gordon Laco]

Thanks John - 

It was worse, or just as bad, in my Folkboat days.  Folkboats were created
to be a One-Design racing fleet, and they still are in Europe.  They were
truly the J24 of their day.  Today most Folkboats are what I used to call
"furniture" - immaculate varnish gleaming beneath a crappy un-tuned rig with
ancient sails.  

Well, weirdo that I am, I liked to make the boat sail to its potential...
And lo and behold... Found that they knew what they were doing back in the
'40's; I could out-point anything but a Soling, hold most 'modern' boats
under 30' (given 10kts of wind), and could carry sail when no-one else
could.

BUT

Since most F Boats are now furniture, the PHRF number reflected the
declining performance of the class.  So there I'd be occasionally winning
races (best in medium air with lots of beating) in real time - then clawing
more time by my skewed rating (which I needed every second of in light air
with choppy water) 

I used to say that I understood Ghengis Khan's definition of the sweetest
thing, which he said was to defeat the foe, ride his horses and listen to
the lamenting of his women.  Well for me that meant sailing well - taking
the handicap, then buying beer to quiet the complaining.

One-design racing is the best... I wish there were racing Alberg sailors in
my waters. (anyone listening....?)

Gord





> Ah PHRF, the reason I got out of Club racing - the endless debate on the
> number of angels dancing on the head of a pin.
> Your base line must be 216 with a 3 second allowance for the undersized head
> sail. Poor record keeping and small fleets skew PHFR results so dramatically
> as well as the ridiculous notion one rating number will be fairly reflective
> of a boat in different wind/sea conditions.
> 
> We all know why PHRF is so popular - it's cheap and not all boaters were
> wise enough to choose an Alberg in the first place ; )
> 
> Best of luck with your season Gord and the subsequent discussions at the bar
> over the "fairness of your rating" - been there, out of that ; )
> 
> Cheers,
> John
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gordon Laco" <mainstay at csolve.net>
> To: "Alberg 30 Public List -- open to all" <public-list at alberg30.org>
> Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 8:42 AM
> Subject: Re: [Public-list] PHRF rating
> 
> 
>> Thanks Richard -
>> 
>> The reason I am polling phrf numbers is because we did well again last
>> night
>> in the 'wrong' fleet.  Here is the situation.
>> 
>> We were assigned a phrf of 219 sailing with a 140 genny and using the
>> 'chute.  Our club breaks the starts into two fleets, A Fleet for boats
>> that
>> rate under 192 and B that rates over.  The B fleet is mostly Sharks, a
>> healthy one design fleet of 24 foot sloops with fractional rigs. The last
>> two seasons we raced in B as our 219 put us right in that fleet.
>> 
>> I often felt self conscious squashing Sharks with our relatively huge wind
>> shadow, especially at the starts, because the Sharks are really racing
>> each
>> other.  Added to this, there only other boats of our size and vintage (a
>> Niagara 30 and a Corvette 31) are in A fleet as their phrf's put them just
>> under the 192 line.
>> 
>> This year I requested to be put into A fleet so that we could race against
>> the Niagara and the Corvette - both traditional enemies from the glory
>> days
>> when they and A30's were common on courses in Canada.  I also did not want
>> to be a big course hazard for the Shark fleet which I think deserves its
>> own
>> start.  Here is what happened last night.
>> 
>> We finished close to a boat that rates under 160 and ahead of the Niagara
>> 30
>> which rates 187.  Now I expect that our rating will be suggested to be too
>> high.  I remarked to my crew last night that if we were crafty we would
>> throw a couple of races to solidify the high rating then get evil and sail
>> to overachieve on the numbers...but I don't like that (but I thought about
>> it...)
>> 
>> Gord #426
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On Lake Ontario our  numbers are 222 white sail and
>>> 213 spin. This is with a 170 headsail.
>>> Richard
>>> --- Gordon Laco <mainstay at csolve.net> wrote:
>>>> Hi there -
>>>> 
>>>> Can you folks offer me the phrf numbers for A30's
>>>> that your clubs use?
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks - Gord #426 Surprise
>>>> 
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