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National Reference Ratings
PHRF racing participation is declining across the country. While there are many factors that have caused this decrease in participation, one of the recurring complaints voiced by racers and race organizers alike is that PHRF handicaps are not always fair. The realities are that PHRF fleets suffer from two major disadvantages. (1) Most are constrained to one time-on-distance rating to cover all situations and (2) there is little crosstalk and observed performance information sharing available to the fleets. We believe the National Reference Ratings (NRR) concept described below can be a step in the right direction to resolve these problems and US Offshore is ready to provide the leadership and resources to make it happen.
Our approach is to create “National Reference Ratings” (NRR). There are two key components behind these NRRs. First, there must be a definition of what boat configuration the rating is based upon. Once defined, and only then, can one establish the base rating for boats. We plan to do this first for Standard Production classes and once those are completed move to One-Off designs. To ensure alignment with the existing PHRF ratings, NRR will set the J-35 time-on-distance rating to 72 sec/mile. NRR will be based on medium wind strengths. The applicability to light or heavy air conditions will be discussed later in this document.
US Offshore will publish these National Reference Ratings so they are available to the PHRF fleets. The NRR rating process will start with the popular classes. The US Offshore team, working in concert with a National Panel of Senior Handicappers selected from the major fleets across the US, will produce these NRR ratings. Currently, this panel is looking at the first block of 150 popular Standard Production classes. This is just the tip of the iceberg as there are several thousand designs racing in PHRF. Our Red, White and Blue PHRF Handicap book contains ratings for some 5,000 production classes.
This National Panel of Senior Handicappers has over 150 years of combined experience racing, evaluating, and creating PHRF ratings. The panel is comprised of:
Bruce Bingman
Dan Nowlan
Paul Ansfield
John Collins
June Hendricks
Jim Tischner
NRR will actually have two ratings: one for windward-leeward courses, the other will be for random leg courses. We believe that the introduction of a second rating tailored to distance courses will improve rating accuracy without introducing unpalatable complexity. The reasoning is simple: when only one rating is available, it gravitates towards a rating representing the types of events a boat usually sails. As we know, there are many boats that do not perform when sailing windward-leeward courses, but sail well on a reach. Depending on the course preferences of boat owners, ratings for the same design can be markedly different from fleet to fleet. With two ratings, a poor windward-leeward boat would not carry the rating assessment for exceptional reaching performance. The net effect of introducing this second, distance rating should result in fairer racing for all.
NRR will also encourage the switch from Time on Distance (ToD) to Time on Time (ToT). This departure from the traditional PHRF format will increase accuracy and fairness. When racing under ToD, the ratings stay the same as wind speed increases or decreases. Hence, when the wind drops, the fast boats always enjoy a rating advantage and conversely small boats enjoy a rating advantage when the wind builds.
It has been shown through analysis that a medium air strength derived ToT rating will produce accurate club level racing scoring in light air. That fact is what drives us to promote ToT NRR as the base format.
Another benefit to ToT scoring is the reduction of work for a race committee. There is no need to measure course distances to determine the corrected times. This further increases the accuracy of the ratings since there is no error when setting a course distance plus it makes putting on races easier.
NRR will also review common changes from the base-rating configuration, e.g. a boat sailing with a 100% headsail when 155% is the standard for that boat’s class or when a change is made to a longer spinnaker pole or sprit. Currently adjustments have the same value in seconds per mile for displacement boats and planing boats. Studies done by US Offshore for PHRF fleets have shown this not accurate. Revised NRR “Standard Adjustments” will be derived, published and applied to NRR certificates.
Heavy air racing has its own set of issues. A medium air based NRR rating will fail for planing boats if applied to heavy air racing. Therefore, we will eventually develop a heavy air offset table. This is not planned for the initial phase of this project.
Current Status and Expectations
Bruce Bingman and his panel have completed the NRR windward-leeward ratings for about 150 of the most popular boats. This is our initial report of the W/L NRR handicaps for medium air.
The distance component and configuration summary are underway and will be reported as soon as they are available.
National Reference Ratings
PHRF racing participation is declining across the country. While there are many factors that have caused this decrease in participation, one of the recurring complaints voiced by racers and race organizers alike is that PHRF handicaps are not always fair. The realities are that PHRF fleets suffer from two major disadvantages. (1) Most are constrained to one time-on-distance rating to cover all situations and (2) there is little crosstalk and observed performance information sharing available to the fleets. We believe the National Reference Ratings (NRR) concept described below can be a step in the right direction to resolve these problems and US Offshore is ready to provide the leadership and resources to make it happen.
Our approach is to create “National Reference Ratings” (NRR). There are two key components behind these NRRs. First, there must be a definition of what boat configuration the rating is based upon. Once defined, and only then, can one establish the base rating for boats. We plan to do this first for Standard Production classes and once those are completed move to One-Off designs. To ensure alignment with the existing PHRF ratings, NRR will set the J-35 time-on-distance rating to 72 sec/mile. NRR will be based on medium wind strengths. The applicability to light or heavy air conditions will be discussed later in this document.
US Offshore will publish these National Reference Ratings so they are available to the PHRF fleets. The NRR rating process will start with the popular classes. The US Offshore team, working in concert with a National Panel of Senior Handicappers selected from the major fleets across the US, will produce these NRR ratings. Currently, this panel is looking at the first block of 150 popular Standard Production classes. This is just the tip of the iceberg as there are several thousand designs racing in PHRF. Our Red, White and Blue PHRF Handicap book contains ratings for some 5,000 production classes.
This National Panel of Senior Handicappers has over 150 years of combined experience racing, evaluating, and creating PHRF ratings. The panel is comprised of:
Bruce Bingman
Dan Nowlan
Paul Ansfield
John Collins
June Hendricks
Jim Tischner
NRR will actually have two ratings: one for windward-leeward courses, the other will be for random leg courses. We believe that the introduction of a second rating tailored to distance courses will improve rating accuracy without introducing unpalatable complexity. The reasoning is simple: when only one rating is available, it gravitates towards a rating representing the types of events a boat usually sails. As we know, there are many boats that do not perform when sailing windward-leeward courses, but sail well on a reach. Depending on the course preferences of boat owners, ratings for the same design can be markedly different from fleet to fleet. With two ratings, a poor windward-leeward boat would not carry the rating assessment for exceptional reaching performance. The net effect of introducing this second, distance rating should result in fairer racing for all.
NRR will also encourage the switch from Time on Distance (ToD) to Time on Time (ToT). This departure from the traditional PHRF format will increase accuracy and fairness. When racing under ToD, the ratings stay the same as wind speed increases or decreases. Hence, when the wind drops, the fast boats always enjoy a rating advantage and conversely small boats enjoy a rating advantage when the wind builds.
It has been shown through analysis that a medium air strength derived ToT rating will produce accurate club level racing scoring in light air. That fact is what drives us to promote ToT NRR as the base format.
Another benefit to ToT scoring is the reduction of work for a race committee. There is no need to measure course distances to determine the corrected times. This further increases the accuracy of the ratings since there is no error when setting a course distance plus it makes putting on races easier.
NRR will also review common changes from the base-rating configuration, e.g. a boat sailing with a 100% headsail when 155% is the standard for that boat’s class or when a change is made to a longer spinnaker pole or sprit. Currently adjustments have the same value in seconds per mile for displacement boats and planing boats. Studies done by US Offshore for PHRF fleets have shown this not accurate. Revised NRR “Standard Adjustments” will be derived, published and applied to NRR certificates.
Heavy air racing has its own set of issues. A medium air based NRR rating will fail for planing boats if applied to heavy air racing. Therefore, we will eventually develop a heavy air offset table. This is not planned for the initial phase of this project.
Current Status and Expectations
Bruce Bingman and his panel have completed the NRR windward-leeward ratings for about 150 of the most popular boats. This is our initial report of the W/L NRR handicaps for medium air.
The distance component and configuration summary are underway and will be reported as soon as they are available.
