Class vs OD vs PHRF?

If I look up ratings for the L28 I sometimes see "OD" which is usually 6 points lower than traditional PHRF ratings.

Lake Ontario PHRF lists the laser ODR ( one design rule). It takes into account for the oversized pole and spinnaker.  It is just the base handicap then adjustments are made from there. 

Edited by Mike V - 29 May 2015 at 6:16pm

It is very confusing indeed. The term PHRF is just a banner under which there are several jurisdictions each with their own assignment of ratings policies. There is no bond nor guidelines between jurisdictions as far as I can tell. Bill points out that on Lake St. Louis they treat the Laser class spinnaker as a Code 6. In BC it is a code 8. Also, in BC some years ago some gurus at PHRF decided that to try to even out the performance differences between older cruising designs and modern racer/cruisers, they would add 10% to every boat's rating such that the boats with higher PHRF number would gain more PHRF advantage than the lower raters when the 10% was added. Now we have people protesting the differences between boats, such as Lasers, who have a higher rating in BC, than in other places. Of course they fail to note that the other boats also have higher ratings owing to the 10% adjustments. Last year they reduced the rating number of the Olson 911 to conform to the Pacific Northwest Rating, which doesn't carry the extra 10%. She always comes in last or second to last anyway, so now she is right out of it. No wisdom applied in that move.

So PHRF is an assembly of letters forming a banner that various handicap jurisdictions use, but it has no common rules for yacht measurements. Each place makes its own PHRF rules. The only thing one can use the data basis figures for, is to observe generally how boats perform against each other.

Note the HI/LO figures don't give any indication of what they consider a BASE Yacht. Nor does the list tell us anything about the sail configurations of the boats used to get the averages.

It would be good if there was a single organization (say US Sailing association) who wrote solid rules for handing out PHRF ratings and just let each jurisdiction comply. There was only one IOR, MORC, and other systems. However, like the Portmouth System, the PHRF is not a system of measurement, but an assignment of rating based on performance, which varies in a thousand ways among boats of a single model, perhaps less if adhering to a strict One Design configuration. Ultimately, that's the appeal of One Design racing. It is just that very few jurisdictions have sufficient numbers in multi-usage yachts of a single type to make that happen. In BC we say that every one sails a One Design. One Design of this and One Design of that, etc, with very few boats being the same at all.

Chris,
It is as I said. All areas with their own committees without a common written PHRF guideline making up things as they go along. My only advice is to not treat PHRF racing to seriously (so says I who sort of lives for it), and treat all racing as a venue to improve your own and your crew's skills, and make improvements on the boat to improve its relative position in the fleet. I've worked our way to the top which is what has caused the spot light to come upon us. The best one can do is hope to keep your rating in line with other boats with whom you compete, and you can sort of look at ratings of similar boats in other jurisdictions to see how you compare. Warning, however: When you do that, you will find ratings vary all over the place.

In our VARC (overall Vancouver Area fleet) series there are boats that we cannot beat if they are well sailed. They rate extremely well to their sailing potential. However none of us who race in the larger VARC series would ever complain about someone else's rating. However, back at my home club of West Vancouver Yacht Club, we have a bunch of busy bodies that protest the ratings of boats like my Laser because they cannot ever get close to us. But you should see how these boats are set up and how poorly they are sailed. Yet because they rate faster than us (and they should), but can't beat us, they protest our rating to the PHRF committee so now all BC Lasers are on the watch list and may get our rating knocked down at the Fall meeting. Those guys who protest are not the good sailors we are competing with. We enjoy going after the more challenging boats and crews and we will surely be penalized in our racing against these other monsters whom truly we can't beat because of these sick boats that should just stay at home. Such is handicap racing, but we must live with it.

The standard L28 class one-design pole length is 11.32 feet. All boats came with a pole this length... however over time many have tried to optimise for handicap and shortened it. The J measurement of the boat is 9.65 ft.

Welcome Comet!
Your handicap looks about right but the explanations on your certificate are a little confusing.
Here is a previous certificate for your boat
http://phrf.hryra.org/boat/comet-172-1

The over sized pole implies over sized spinnaker so I think you should be getting the penalty for the sail size, not the pole.

I introduced myself to Comet's previous previous owner in 2004 so I could see what a Laser 28 was all about; then I started looking for one of my own.
PM me if you want to chat. ttys, john

http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?/topic/202667-28-laser-for-sale/

Laser 28 for sale......

I'm still confused.  An 11 second penalty for the pole length is dramatic.  Can I just use a shorter pole and not have the penalty?