What is this ratings stuff?

 From Wikipedia:

The handicap number assigned to a class of yachts is based on the yacht's speed relative to a theoretical yacht with a rating of 0. A yacht's handicap, or rating, is the number of seconds per mile traveled that the theoretical yacht should be in front of or behind that yacht. Most boats have a positive PHRF rating, but some very fast boats have a negative PHRF rating. If Boat A has a PHRF rating of 15 and Boat B has a rating of 30 and they compete on a 1 mile course, Boat A should finish approximately 15 seconds in front of Boat B. Results are adjusted for handicap by the race committee after all competitors have finished.

The Pac Cup is a 2070 nautical mile course.  When our rating went from 88 to 63, we lost 25 seconds per mile.  So for the race that is 51750 seconds.  862.50 minutes.  14.375 hours.  More than half a day!  We did not think we could sail to that rating.  In other words, we did not think the boat was fast enough that we could afford to give that much time to our competitors and still be competitive.  With that rating we could expect to correct out (the finish order after the ratings corrections are applied) to last place.  We are not expecting to win the race but it is depressing to start a race knowing that you have no shot at doing well!  By having the boat weighed we got almost half of that time back--6.9 hours over the 2070 nm course.   That seems more realistic for the boat's performance and puts us on the "slower" end of the group we are starting with.  Considering how we have done against these boats in other races over the past year and a half, that is where we should be.  So we hope to be more competitive within our division and the fleet with our "correct" rating of 75.

There are two other boats in our division with the same rating.  Like Ay Caliente in the Ocean Races, we will know in real time how we are doing against these two boats.

12 days to go!

Another Ratings Change??

We were notified by YRA yesterday that there was an error on our PHRF certificate that they had just noticed and corrected, resulting in a lower downwind rating.  This is the third downwind rating we have had this year.  Our regular rating is 81.  Our original downwind rating was 39.  Then we requested a change as we would carry only symmetrical spinnakers.  We expected 3 seconds for that but our new downwind rating came in at 88.  Believe me I called to make sure that wasn't a mistake and I was assured it was correct.  Yesterday we received notice that one of our spinnaker measurements had been reported in meters and they had converted it to feet and recalculated our downwind rating as 63.   It will probably change again as I sent the new certificate to our sail maker to check the converted measurement and it was listed as a foot larger than it actually is.  We shall see where we land but it looks like we will still start Tuesday at 12:15 as there are a couple of boats with lower ratings than 63.

Edit: the sail measurement correction did not change the new rating of 63 so now we are discussing potentially having the boat weighed and trying to get another new rating before the race.  We have had several people tell us our boat weighs more than what J boat says as we have a huge s/s radar arch.  Two people from the PHRF committee said that the weight makes a "significant difference" in the downwind rating.  I just talked to the official measurer and he guestimated it could be 5000 heavier (that is 25%) than the "official weight" and he has never even SEEN the boat or its arch.  Why couldn't this have happened BEFORE the last minute???  LOL.  Gotta love this yachting stuff.