Normally their is a PHRF committee, that looks at the PHRF numbers used by
other fleets across the country, they try to find areas that have similar
sailing characteristics (i.e. wind speed, waves, wakes etc.) US Sailing
organizes PHRF in the US, you should be able to contact them for everything
you ever wanted to know about PHRF but were afraid to ask.

US Sailing can also provide with a information that will be helpful to the
Race Committee. A normal procedure for race committee is for one boat in
the fleet to work on "race committee" for each race. It makes sure you
always have enough people to help you set the start line, make sure the
start if correct, and watch and time the finishes. Since the advent of
laptops, there are spreadsheets that provide a quick answer as to who has
won the race. Since PHRF is a handicap system, you might be the first to
cross the finish line, and end up in last place.

Since you are a complete rookie, you definitely need seasoned vets on race
committee to help you determine what course you will run and how to set the
start line depending upon current conditions. Most skippers want to have
the race run as close to upwind and downwind as possible. It highlights the
performance of the boat and crew when they race dead into the wind and dead
down wind.


wrote in message
oups.com...
Can I adjust this PHRF number based on how many bottles of booze a
skipper buys me? I know this wont work cuz I have about as much
patience for sailboat racing as I do for fishing........none. I sorta
got dragooned into it cuz nobody else would do it and I said yes in a
moment of weakness.