Capt. Rob wrote:

Woweee! I just got finished telling everyone that my friend wins with
her Catalina 30 owned ONE SEASON. Thanks for making the point. Every
racer I know laughs at PHRF because the crappy boats generally have the
advantage. A Catalina 28 is a turd...and not a very intelligent turd to
buy as turds go!

RB
35s5....a boat that would literally sail circles around any Catalina
28!
NY


Bob, I'm very impressed that you appreciate this subtlety in PHRF.
Certain boats, especially modern designs, require extra skill to get
the most out of them. Further, boats that attract highly skilled
"professional" crews will have ratings the reflect their skills in all
aspects, such as spinnaker handling. The ratings will reflect this
since they tend to reflect the best use of a boat, not the average.
As a result, the average owner of a boat like a 35s5 will not be able
to sail to his rating, while a for less extreme design will be easier.

So how much of a "penalty" is this for the average sailor, with an
average crew. The minimum increment in PHRF is usually 3 seconds, but
only a fool would lose by a few seconds and then blame it on the
rating system. Clearly then the average benny sailor is, according to
Bob, going to sail perhaps 12 to 15 seconds slower than his rating.
For the 35s5 WK, this means the fairly low rating of 132 becomes in
practice 147 to 150. This puts the benny right in there with the
Catalina 36, slower than the Hunters. In fact, a quick scan of the
list shows that a variety of boats 36 feet or less have ratings under
150: Irwins, O'Days, Pearsons, Sabre's, Tartan's, etc.

Its nice to see that Bob realizes that although his boat may show
moments of speed, on average, its just another midsized daysailor, and
will frequently be passed by "crappy boats."