PHRF - Spin vs. Non-Spin Adjustment

[EditorC22NSA]

Thank you everyone who responded to my original post above. I am the Score-Keeper/PHRF Committee Lead at our club in Indianapolis, and was curious to see what type of feedback from other sources that I would receive in response to a very high level concept that a few of us were tossing-around last weekend during our 2017 racing program planning meeting. Our Club has a growing racing program, and the non-spinnaker fleet size is now just as large, and slightly larger, than our spinnaker fleet that has dominated the racing for over a decade.

Two years ago, our club launched a new "Boat of the Year" program that allowed spinnaker and non-spinnaker boats to pursue the award on fairly level playing field. It involves some unique scoring work to bring a balance to PHRF and Participation. The first year, a J24 (spinnaker) won the award. Last year, I won the award in a non-spinnaker Catalina 22 Sport. The BOTY program has proven successful by demonstrating in its first two years that spinnaker and non-spinnaker boats can compete for top racing recognition, while racing in separate fleets with different configurations, and not be 100% dependent on the limitations of PHRF.

The feedback posted above was useful, because it reinforced my known limitations of PHRF, while allowing me to poke around to see if anybody was doing something new, different or unique with respect to PHRF rating adjustments for mix-configurations.

 

[Jackdaw]

@EditorC22NSA ,

That's a worthy goal, and worth the work to make it as fair as possible.

At WYC we use a BOTY formula that scores boats WITHIN THEIR FLEETS for BOTY honors. This is a challenge (but the only way to do it) because we have OD fleets of J22, J24, S2 7.9, Capri25, Ensign, and Sonars, and handicap fleets of PHRF1 (spin) MORC (spin) and PHRF 2 (non-spin). All fleets are 20-30 boats.

The rule is below. High level, we give BOTY points for WINNERS of a race, based on the number of boats you beat. Because of this, one boat usually rises to the top of each fleet.

Normally BOTY at WYC comes from the J22, J24, Capri25, or PHRF 1 fleets. Two years ago a PHRF2 boat won. There was a little grumbling, because the 2nd place j24 had placed at the j24 WORLDS the year before, but had tougher in-fleet competition for BOTY. Still, everyone cheered like crazy when they when up to pick up the award.

Moral of the story? No system will be perfect. So everybody accepts that. You have to think of it as an fun award, and not recognition of the club's best boat or sailor. Because often it is not.

The challenges of our system:

1) Does not account for differing strengths of the fleets in general. But some people look at this as a positive.

2) Strong in-fleet rivalries hurt your chances.

3) You gotta win to win. You could make a similar system that gave fractional points for other podium places.

 

[EditorC22NSA]

@EditorC22NSA ,

That's a worthy goal, and worth the work to make it as fair as possible.

At WYC we use a BOTY formula that scores boats WITHIN THEIR FLEETS for BOTY honors. This is a challenge (but the only way to do it) because we have OD fleets of J22, J24, S2 7.9, Capri25, Ensign, and Sonars, and handicap fleets of PHRF1 (spin) MORC (spin) and PHRF 2 (non-spin). All fleets are 20-30 boats.

The rule is below. High level, we give BOTY points for WINNERS of a race, based on the number of boats you beat. Because of this, one boat usually rises to the top of each fleet.

Normally BOTY at WYC comes from the J22, J24, Capri25, or PHRF 1 fleets. Two years ago a PHRF2 boat won. There was a little grumbling, because the 2nd place j24 had placed at the j24 WORLDS the year before, but had tougher in-fleet competition for BOTY. Still, everyone cheered like crazy when they when up to pick up the award.

Moral of the story? No system will be perfect. So everybody accepts that. You have to think of it as an fun award, and not recognition of the club's best boat or sailor. Because often it is not.

The challenges of our system:

1) Does not account for differing strengths of the fleets in general. But some people look at this as a positive.

2) Strong in-fleet rivalries hurt your chances.

3) You gotta win to win. You could make a similar system that gave fractional points for other podium places.

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@Jackdaw

Thanks for sharing. Our club's BOTY is similar...based on % of boats beat in your respective fleet. Agreed on fleet size makes a difference, too. BOTY encourages current races to encourage others to get involved. Not perfect, as you said. But adds to the fun.

 

[cdarwincole]

The percentage of total sail area that is the foretriangle area varies considerably from boat to boat. So the effect of a spinnaker on total sail area will vary considerably from boat to boat. Therefore, the rating difference should be based on foretriangle area as a percentage of total sail area, not some percentage of PHRF.