Andrew,
I would like to compete OD however it's not the game in town.
How did George decide from the many possible mods that cutting his pole was the way to go to improve his handicap? I presume it is not as simple as that. You must have to have a smaller 'chute too.
I can not speak for George... however I do not agree with giving any credits to a One Design Boat. In other words why allow an owner to pick at a broad spectrum of PHRF credits which apply to all PHRF boats and decide which credit his particular boat would benefit most from.
I actually have a large downwind inventory with my largest spinnaker and raised hoist giving an additional penalty of 12 seconds per mile over the One Design Rated boat. I made these changes earlier in the year to compete in a faster rated division against J29's, J27's Santana 35's Olson 30's etc.
That division (Division II in VARC vancouver Area Racing Council) sat down and as a group decided to experiment with a new VPP based system. I believe this was done to serve two purposes. Firstly to stop the PHRF appeals/credits problems. Secondly to allow more accurate scoring. This system uses Performance Line Scoring.
By two component handicap do you mean that corrected time is no longer a simple function of elapsed time. It is quadratic or linear with offset?
Performance Line Scoring produces a TA (Time allowance in Seconds/Mile) based on prediced wind strength. This is a straight line, however the slope of the line is considerably different for various designs. What does this mean...
For instance My Laser 28 (which is highly light wind optimized) owes time to a J27 until about 10 knots of wind. We owe time to a Santana 35 upto about 5 knots of wind. A J29 is faster in all wind strengths but the differential increases as the wind strength builds.
Who in your club/ fleet decides which handicap system to use?
We agreed as a group to try this as an experiment this year. This only applies to our division in VARC. We club race under PHRF.
What happens to other owners when they are disadvantaged by changing the handicap system? Does everybody buy new boats or leave the club?
I don't understand the term disadvantaged.... My personal belief is that I try to sail the boat as well as possible around the course and trust that the handicapping system takes care of the rest. I am distressed at people who try to gain specific benefit from a ratings system.
Some other points to consider
I have a huge sail inventory.. For the most part these sails are no more than 2 years old but I only replace the "work horse" sails on a regular schedule. I don't think I spend any more money on sails that a compeditive OD sailor however I have (6) spinnakers of various descriptions and sizes. I have (3) usable Genoa's for different wind strengths. I also have a good lapper and a good Jib. My main has a slightly larger roach than One Design would allow and is less than a year old.
I have modified to boat to go as fast as possible... not to beat a handicapping system.
I have had my boat now for almost 7 years and I am still finding ways to make it go faster... That's whats fun for me.
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