David, PHRF NE covers not only Buzzards Bay but also Cape Cod Bay and Marblehead the latter being a notoriously light air location in the summer. It seems like various regions try to gauge averages to meet the widest range of sailing conditions. In YRLIS, an area for which the C&C 40 was designed to provide an alternative to the NY 40, the C&C 40 handicaps range from 90-99 base rating depending on rig, keel, and year whereas PHRF-NE the range is 87-102. Why? Who knows? Maybe certain boats were kicking butt and somebody got the ear of the local handicapper and everything went sideways after that.. It could happen. I do remember there were several fast 40s in Buzzards Bay that took full advantage of their rating such as Blair Brown's Grayhound and Bill Dingwell's Zoomer.
I still think the most fair way to handle the PHRF rating conundrum is to have a handicap for both the boat and the crew. Hard to do without having a past performance index for the crew, but one or two races to accumulate some results might really level the playing field and reward crews and boats that make big improvements over the course of a year or two. Our YC has a system where when a boat wins a Wednesday night beercan race, they get 10 points subtracted from their handicap for the rest of the month. 2 wins, -20 seconds (which is the max penalty for the month). At the beginning of each month, the handicap reverts to their certificate handicap issued by the local PHRF person. I suspect that back when many of our boats were being built and raced, nobody gave much thought to any rating other than IOR. Chuck Gilchrest S/V Half Magic 1983 35 Landfall Padanaram, MA
_______________________________________________ Thanks everyone for supporting this list with your contributions. Each and every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray
