PHRF Numbers

[Craig Wilusz]

BlueWater Bay Sailing Club (Florida) Grande Finale PHRF Race. 2010.
Spinnaker
NAME             BOAT             PHRF
Ice Melted      Viper640         96
Avocet           Wavelegth 24  165
Pandemonium  Pearson 33    156
Victoria            Benetau 35    135
Kahlua              Oday 28        213

[Zach Freeborn]

Craig, PHRF-NB rates the Viper at 105 and the Melges 24 (and Shaw650) at 99.

[Justin Scott]

Does the Shaw 650 devour the M24 with those ratings?

[Craig Wilusz]

FWYC FCA Regatta 2010 Results

[Zach Freeborn]

Does the Shaw 650 devour the M24 with those ratings?

You can see some results here: http://www.jyc.org/RaceRslts/2008/RaceRslts08.htm
I think the ratings are pretty fair for the three designs.  Unfortunately, JYC splits the classes at 100 so we don't race against them on a regular basis, but when we do it comes down to who sails a better race, not who has a favorable rating.

[Felipe Payet]

Even though I don't currently own a Viper, I still think of myself as "part of the family", so I'll chime in with the history of what we went through in Austin to get a local PHRF rating.

Back in early 2008, I bought a Bennet Viper from John Ridell in AZ, and brought it to Austin.  There had been a tin-rig Viper at AYC many years back, with a PHRF rating of 105.

When I showed up with a carbon-rig boat that also had the updated keel bulb, the local PHRF braintrust freaked (putting it kindly), thinking that the carbon rig and updated bulb would substantially improve the boat's performance, and ignoring my arguments about the impact of the carbon rig, they assigned me a PHRF rating of 96 (OUCH!)   I managed to get them to call it a "provisional" rating, with a promise to revisit the rating after a season's worth of racing.  To make the 96 even MORE painful, the local rating for a Melges 24 at the time was 99.  Yes, boys and girls, we OWED the M24 3 seconds a mile.  Yeah, THAT makes sense...  :-/

Anyway, after a season of racing, I submitted the write-up below to the local PHRF committee.  I'm posting it here in the hopes that it might help others in a similar situation.  Cutting to the chase, the final outcome was that the Viper was re-rated to 102, and recently, the Melges 24 was also re-rated, to a 93.  So all in all, a fairly happy ending for the Viper. 

Hope this helps,
Felipe.
ex owner of Viper #601 Valiente, and #103 The Stig


----------------------
Request for PHRF Rating of the Viper 640 sportboat

I believe the current Viper 640 PHRF rating of 96 to be very aggressive, and would like to officially request a review by the PHRF committee.  My intent here is not to question the rating of any other boat, nor am I seeking a ?gift? rating for the Viper.  I?m simply hoping the Viper will be assigned a rating that fairly (or as fairly as possible within the constraints of PHRF) represents its relative performance.

Local rating vs. other regions & benchmark boat:
--------------------------------------------------------------
The current rating of 96 rates the Viper quite a bit faster than it is rated in any of the other local PHRF fleets where it is actively raced.  As you can see in the table included below [table copied from the viper640.org web site, page on PHRF ratings], the Viper is rated anywhere from 99 to 111 in areas where it is actively raced, and the weighted average rating (accounting for # of boats AND # of seasons raced) for the Viper is 107.6. 

Furthermore, looking at the Viper versus a Melges 24 (chosen as a benchmark because it is also a planing sportboat, and is raced competitively around the country):  Within our local PHRF fleet, a rating of 96 rates the Viper 3 seconds FASTER than the Melges 24, which carries a local rating of 99  (notwithstanding the fact that the Melges has longer waterline and significantly larger sail area).  In contrast, looking at the rating for the Melges 24 in all the areas listed below, the Melges is on average rated 9 seconds faster than the Viper 640 in those areas where both are actively raced (again, see the data below).

One other point regarding the US Sailing PHRF data for the Viper 640:  US Sailing lists the Viper as having a HIGH rating of 111, a LOW of 81, and a resulting AVERAGE of 99.  Unfortunately, I believe the low rating of 81 is not a number representative of the boat:  81 is listed as the rating for the Viper in Charleston, and the only Viper 640 that has raced PHRF in Charleston was a heavily modified boat (with traveler, custom jib cars and more) that briefly raced during the 2006 season.  I think this number presents a skewed picture of the true PHRF performance of the boat, and should not be considered when attempting to rate the boat locally.

Finally, here?s the backup data for many of the arguments above; a comprehensive list of rating data for regions where the Viper is raced PHRF.  The data Includes current number of boats racing PHRF and how many seasons the Viper has been racing PHRF.

The number of boats racing is based on the current number of Vipers actually racing in PHRF events in the region. The number of seasons is the total number of seasons that the Viper has raced PHRF in the region. The rating is based on the 2008 PHRF certificates issued in the region unless otherwise noted.  We have used the data of actual current PHRF certificates where available.
 
This data was compiled by several members of the Viper 640 class association, and can also be seen here:
http://viper640.org/index.php/Handicap-Information/PHRF-Ratings.html

[Justin Scott]

Always part of the family.

We miss you!

For those who have not sailed with or against Felipe in the Viper fleet, his towering performance in the 2008 NAs will always stand head and shoulders above all my other memories of that event.

We look forward to seeing you some time again soon.   

[Craig Wilusz]

PHRF Regatta Zevin #1 (01-22-11)

[Drew Harper]

Here's our new PHRF Cert for NorCal. Still at 96 :-(   SoCal bastards have it SO easy with 111 (shhhhh, this can't last long down there)

Notice our downwind rating....24 :-o

Santa Cruz 50 only spots us 33 seconds/mile....sheeesh

[Craig Wilusz]

New 2011 GYA PHRF.  went from 96-102, which puts a 6 second differenct bewtween the Melges 24 (M-24 at 96).  This follows the average delta in the various PHRF regions around the country.