I have felt your pain Chuck! 
I used to race regularly in a non-spin fleet of racer-cruisers with ratings 
similar to mine out of Oriental, NC albeit with a crew of 4+. When we started 
racing my 36XL/kcb with a 7.25 ' draft would usually be the first to the 
weather mark on round the buoy races. 
Downwind, every one of them would pass me but if there was another upwind leg, 
I would usually catch them all or at least get back into the race. After a 
season or two, my crew and I learned how to use our whisker pole better (mostly 
by watching the others pass us downwind!) and eventually I was able to not have 
any of my competitors pass me downwind--I didn't gain on them but I kept up 
with them. 
Took a couple of seasons but I eventually took first place for the series of 
races, only rarely being corrected over. Nothing focuses the mind like being 
passed downwind by another, similar boat. 
Eventually my competitors retired, moved away, etc. and I was left racing 
against Etchells (same PHRF rating) or J or Moore 24s with ratings +60 above 
mine so in our usual light airs, the fun was gone--my 13,500 lbs needs at least 
8 knots to have a chance against such light weights and getting 8 knots + of 
wind in the NC summer in the Neuse River is not very likely.
Have moved on to mostly full-crew kite racing (CRW, local races, etc.) and 
still suffer in light airs but "...it is what it is..." but with my mast-head 
kite up in a breeze, racing is never boring!!
Charlie NelsonWater Phantom1995 C&C 36 XL/kcb
  


-----Original Message-----
From: CHARLES SCHEAFFER via CnC-List <[email protected]>
To: cnc-list <[email protected]>
Cc: CHARLES SCHEAFFER <[email protected]>
Sent: Tue, Jun 11, 2019 12:17 pm
Subject: Re: Stus-List 30 MK I PHRF Rating

FWIW, stating what I learned.  The PHRF is a rating based on projected boat 
speeds in multiple wind speeds on every angle of the wind.  They use one number 
for a typical boat in all wind and sea conditions.  This works OK for triangle 
races which provide upwind, reaching, downwind legs and if a season of races 
offers low wind and high wind races, the ratings are fair.  My boat excels 
upwind and we did well in triangle races jib and main, held our own reaching, 
and suffered a little downwind without a spinnaker.   
More recently I started racing in distance races and the majority have had a 
short leg upwind to allow a clean start, and then a turn downwind for 90% of 
the race.  I was racing solo against crewed boats and after a timid start 
because I have to keep clear, I'll typically pass four to five boats going the 
30 minutes upwind.  Then they pass me with their genekers or spinnakers on the 
4 hour downwind course to the finish.  One race turned back upwind at the 
finish and I was able to pass a boat on that final leg so I wasn't the last of 
60 boats across the line.  I have flown my spinnaker alone, but not during a 
race yet.  I'm working on that.
All in all, racing PHRF made us better sailors and I pushed some other skippers 
and they got better too so we all benefited.
Chuck S, Resolute, 1990 C&C 34R


On June 11, 2019 at 10:49 AM "Matthew L. Wolford via CnC-List" 
<[email protected]> wrote: 
 
Correct (as usual) about sport boats.  It’s hard to beat a boat capable of 
doing sport-boat speeds in moderate to heavy air. From: Dennis C. via 
CnC-ListSent: Tuesday, June 11, 2019 10:18 AMTo: CnClistCc: Dennis C.Subject: 
Re: Stus-List 30 MK I PHRF Rating The imperfections of handicap systems have 
been discussed a lot.  You just have to accept them with all their warts. One 
protection against local politics is to race a boat which has several 
sisterboats.  If your boat is the only one like it in the fleet and you win a 
lot, you probably will be hit.  On the other hand, if there are one or more 
boats like yours in the fleet and the others are not well raced, you have a 
small "buffer" against an adjustment. Another protection is to be a member of 
the club with a local handicapper or a club with clout.  Hence, the politics. 
PHRF (Punishing Hard Racing Folks) is not a perfect system.  On the other hand, 
there are racers who stretch the system.  They'll buy a "sleeper" boat, trick 
it out to the max, win a few races then sell it when the handicappers hit it. 
IMHO, the biggest problem with PHRF is when there is a mixed fleet with sport 
boats and displacement boats.  The system just doesn't have the capability to 
handle the significant differences in performance in varying conditions for 
disparate boat types. Personally, I think the Portsmouth TOT system is better 
than PHRF.  I'm monitoring my area's venture into ORR-EZ. Dennis C.Touche' 35-1 
#83Mandeville, LA On Tue, Jun 11, 2019 at 8:56 AM Matthew L. Wolford via 
CnC-List < [email protected]> wrote: 

What Edd refers to as “corruption” I referred to in my earlier note as “local 
politics.”  In my view Edd is correct – corrupt local politics is probably the 
biggest factor in rating anomalies. From: Edd Schillay via CnC-ListSent: 
Monday, June 10, 2019 4:42 PMTo: [email protected]: Edd SchillaySubject: 
Re: Stus-List 30 MK I PHRF Rating Randy, As someone who was Commodore of a 
Western Long Island Sound yacht racing association for over 12 years and who 
has had access to ratings data from all over the USA, there is, simply, a 
one-word answer: Corruption First of all, the P in PHRF is Performance. So, if 
there is a a few C&C 30s that race in a particular area that do very well, one 
of their competitors will go to the PHRF committee and ask for a rating review 
stating it’s unfair racing, which may result in a change in that rating. The 
more someone complains, the more likely a change will be made, just to shut 
them up. The squeaky wheel gets the oil. That alone is corrupt. Now here is 
where the BIG corruption comes in to play: Quite often the members of the PHRF 
committees are people in the sailing industry, usually sailmakers. Give them 
business and changes will probably come in your favor. In some areas, it’s 
gotten better, but it’s still a mess. Real racing factors such as sail area, 
displacement, waterline, etc. are not part of any PHRF calculation, except 
maybe when faced with a one-off new boat -- they’ll rate it similar to another 
boat with the same specs. As you can tell, I’m not a fan. But other systems are 
either super expensive or have gone extinct (Americap had such promise). What 
racing needs is a mathematician with some extra time on his hands that can 
create a formula that will calculate a rating system based solely on the boat’s 
characteristics. 

All the best, Edd  Edd M. SchillayCaptain of the Starship EnterpriseC&C 37+ | 
Sail No: NCC-1701-BCity Island Yacht Club | City Island, NYVenice Yacht Club | 
Venice, FL Starship Enterprise's Captain's Log 

 On Jun 10, 2019, at 4:25 PM, Randy Stafford via CnC-List < 
[email protected]> wrote: Listers- Looking at US Sailing’s “History of US 
PHRF Affiliated Fleet Handicaps” ( 
https://www.ussailing.org/competition/offshore/phrf/phrf-handicaps/), you can 
see that there is a range of ratings for the 30 MK I across different fleets, 
from 168 to 186 seconds per nautical mile.  Note I believe that the “C&C 30” 
and “C&C 30 (1-506)” models are the same boat in that document’s tables. I’m 
trying to understand why that is.  The mode, or most often occurring rating, is 
174.  That’s with spinnaker, and generally assumes a folding prop, from what I 
understand.  But why would the Newfoundland fleet rate the boat at 168 sec/nm, 
for example, and the Northwest fleet rate it at 186? If we have any listers 
from those fleets / Regional Sailing Associations who can shed light on this 
question, I’d be very interested. When my boat was first rated by my RSA ( 
https://rmsail.org, in US Sailing’s Area F) back in 2016, she was given a 
rating of 186, with a fixed two-blade prop.  Her rating stayed at 186 after I 
got a folding prop for the 2017 season and beyond. Now my RSA is re-rating all 
boats in the region.  I believe the handicapper is primarily looking at the 
above US Sailing document, and probably choosing the most-often occurring 
rating as the base.  So I believe my boat’s rating will probably change to 174. 
Can anyone explain the range of ratings? Thank You,Randy StaffordS/V 
GrenadineC&C 30-1 #7Ken Caryl, 
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