Maxprop wrote:
I believe you are right. However, considering that there were only 46 Sea
Sprite 34s built, and most of them never saw a handicap race course, it
stands to reason that the few of them that have raced *may* have been
handled poorly by their owner/skippers, yielding a high numerical rating.

Maybe so. It wouldn't even have to be poor handling, just unfavorable
conditions, mediocre sails or working sails (PHRF assumes you have a
155), etc etc. A preliminary rating might have been issued, and never
revised or revised only slightly (in the absense of protests).

Flying Tadpole wrote about the screeching & howling arising from racers
beaten by a traditional boat. Maybe in the case of your boat, it wasn't
so loud.


Most SS 34s are class-raced, not PHRF raced, so the rating wouldn't change.
What I do know is that I can sail my boat well beyond her rating,
considering that the Catalina 34 rates at 144 with a fin keel, and I can
consistently leave them behind on all points of sail, save hard to windward,
where we roughly equal each other. Same with a Tartan 34 (older) with a
keel/CB. The C34s and the Tartans have been sailed by competent sailors,
since you were bound to question this. They've been as surprised by my boat
as have I. When on the hard, they shake their heads when they see her
modified full keel.


You also have a frac rig, and I assume it's properly tuned & has good
sails. Little things add up, although clearly the boat has to be capable
in the first place.

In your boat's case, the numbers are quite deceiving. That short
waterline makes the boat look like heavy & slow... but if you plug in
say 27' instead of 24' for LWL, a realistic guesstimate of what the
*sailing* waterline might be, the D/L goes from 400 (serious
crab-crusher) to 290... putting her in a range competitive with the
Catalina & Tartan.


Boats,such as the J35, which were sailed by professional teams en masse when
it first was released, have ratings to which the average sailor cannot sail.
This supports your contention that the PHRF ratings do change with racing
results.


They absolutely do. A lot of people get off on bragging about their
boat's PHRF rating, such as Boobsprit, it's true that some boats have
earned ratings that are almost impossible to sail to in club racing.
It's also true that there are a lot of boats out there racing with
clapped-out sails, untuned rigs, or some other serious defect, with
owners bitching their "impossible" rating.

All that said, PHRF is not a bad system for allowing a bunch of people
with boats they chose for whatever reason to go out and have fun bashing
around the bouys.

My boat placed second in its class in the Chicago Mac with her former owner.
I don't know if PHRF is the handicap rating used in that race or not.


Probably yes. There are IMS and Americap classes in the Mac but AFAIK
most of the fleet is racing under PHRF.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King