So, although there is a PHRF base rating for the model, it does not appear to be in the US Sailing One Design Central class list. That’s the case with most boats - PHRF has standard classes with a base rating for a given model, then tailors the rating based on a boat’s specific configuration. One Design classes prescribe very specific rules for boats to comply with if they intend to race in One Design competition. Look at the J-24 Class Rule for example at
http://www.j24class.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/J24-Class-Rules-2019.pdf - 45 pages of exacting detail on how a boat must be constructed, equipped, and configured. If you don’t comply with the rule you can still get a PHRF handicap, PHRF will just adjust your individual rating based on how they expect your deviation to affect your performance. But you can’t show up to a J-24 One Design regatta and sail your modified version. As part of the One Design class there are measurers to validate that you comply with the rule and issue One Design measurement certificates.
The MacGregor 25 has no such overriding one design rule, at least based on its absence from the US Sailing list. There is a standard configuration that came from the factory, and PHRF uses that as the class definition to set the base handicap. But there are no One Design constraints, no official regattas, no measurers, etc, or at least none that US Sailing recognizes to distinguish it as a One Design class.
Hi David Sailor,
You're correct, of course, about the J24s and their specific racing design rules. I used to race both the J22s and J24s. They are great boats. I find the performance of the J24 and the MacGregor 25 to be pretty similar, actually. The Mac can sustain surfing, which is both lively and remarkably uncomfortable, but really fast, if you keep up the factory main and jib in over 17 knots of wind, even against the weather. I've seen 8 and 9 knots over the ground on my GPS while close-hauled in 20 knots in my MacGregor 25. The J22 or J24 can sustain hydroplaning if you're willing to fly the (in-my-time) rule-compliant symmetrical chute above about 12+ knots of wind. Both are great boats! I'd take the J24 or J22 for club racing, over the MacGregor anytime. That's what those boats are for. I've sailed and raced, Solings, Sonars, Rhodes 19s, and my first boat, a Douglas Flying Scot.
All of my boats have been, "one-design" sailboats, including my MacGregor 25, @SailingKymopoleia. The Classic MacGregor Sailors don't have an active, race-minded organization that is detailing and documenting their class rules, but we could do that. I'm not even sure that there is an organization at all. We could join US Sailing as a group and we could become listed as a one-design and we could publish our detailed class rules and submit a class profile. Maybe we should, but I suspect that MacGregor Sailors are more interested in exploring, gunkholing, sailboat camping, and coastal cruising in an extremely capable shoal draft trailer sailor than they are interested in racing around buoys in the harbor. Our boats are not very good at that kind of thing, anyway.
MacGregor 25s are still a One-Design Sailboat. It doesn't matter that no one really cares that much about documentation or racing, or that no one really does anything with racing. "Maybe we should? There must be three or four thousand of the total 7,000 of the boats made, that are still swimming?
The Performance Handicaps are subjective, until a particular class has lots of recorded performance reading data available. MacGregor 25 handicaps would likely change for MacGregor 25s if anyone would seriously race one (the current rating is really high!). I don't think that many MacGregor Sailors enter their boats in US Sailing sanctioned races? Anyway, if I want to race, I will have to apply to the authority of the race to adjust my rating. I have more sail area than any of the standard boats upon which the ratings are based. I have a mast top rig and bowsprit, with two headsails like a "slutter," I also have some rig modifications. I would submit my dimensions, like any boat owner can do and then the basic handicap is adjusted by the race officials. Time would tell, I'm not sure that MacGregor 25s have much data because they are not raced often.
Any road up, Dave, it is a great discussion. Your points are all valid and important. You make me want to organize the classic MacGregor owners and enter a few sanctioned races! Instead though, honestly, I think that I'll add a pressure water system and a proper marine toilet so that my gunkholing and sailboat camping are more comfortable.