In a few short months the snow and ice will be gone and it will be time for sailing and racing once again.

As we race boats of all different types there needs to be a way of comparing the relative speeds of the fleet and come up with a way to handicap their performance. The Performance Handicap Racing Fleet, PHRF, is the most commonly used system in the US and Canada and what we use to handicap boats and score races.

The different regions around the country locally administer the system. The Lake Ontario district is one of the largest with over 1300 boats from the US and Canada registered. We look at 5 years of race data on an annual basis to review handicaps based on a statistical analysis of the various fleets. Ratings may be changed up or down based on how that particular type of boat is performing over that time.

PHRF assigns a number that corresponds to the potential speed of the boat, the lower the number, the faster the boat. The system assumes a number of things about your boat, you have good sails, a clean bottom and you are sailing the boat to your best ability. We also consider a standard boat configuration with a folding prop, a headsail that is around 153% of your J measurement and a spinnaker around 183% of J. Variations to this configuration results in a higher or lower handicap number for your specific boat. Your handicap is then used as a multiplier with your actual elapsed time to finish the race to yield the corrected time that becomes your score.

So you want to race and need a handicap. First let me know, if your boat has already been rated on Lake Ontario, I’ll use that rating as the basis to form your rating. If it has not been rated on the lake, then an initial rating will be assigned based on comparisons of like boats. A current certificate is required to be scored in a race. Boats can be rated with or without spinnakers, depending on how you prefer to race.

PHRF is not a perfect system but it seems to work most of time for this type of mixed fleet racing.  If you have questions or would like to get rated, let me know. See you on the starting line.

John Fahy
SBYC Handicapper
jfahy@rochester.rr.com