PHRF Meeting Summary

Correction: An earlier version of this story cited Neil Bennett’s comments as the meeting “minutes.” Neil’s comments below are actually “an overview to the membership that recounts the summary of the outcome decisions.” Sailish regrets the error.

It’s January, and time for the PHRF handicappers and officers to gather and ponder ratings and such. This past Sunday the event was held downstairs at CYC-Seattle. Just outside the marina, a very well attended Frigid Digit regatta was in full swing and on full display. It’s January in Seattle and we’re all thinking about racing…. Neil Bennett shared the meeting summary with me, and I was glad to hear he was “counting” on sailish to publish it. Here we go:

The  Annual General Meeting of the PHRF-NW Handicapper’s Council was held on Sunday, January 27, 2019 at the Corinthian Yacht Club of Seattle. This meeting serves as a means to communicate with interested members and review rating appeals that had been properly filed.

The Council spent considerable time discussing the status of sailboat racing in the greater Puget Sound area. All clubs are persevering in the development of their racing programs through the introduction of “cruising class ratings’ for local or regional club regattas. Generally speaking, all clubs ask that Cruising Class boats join PHRF-NW for an official Performance Rating, then receive an adjusted ‘local rating’ to take into account each individual club’s and boat’s situations. These ratings are valid only in the local club races and are not ‘trailerable’ to out of a boat’s area regattas.

We introduced a new process to our deliberation; that of Fleet Reviews with recommendations for Council action, if appropriate. I will report on the specific outcome of this review process in the next paragraph. We canvassed the approximately 12 – 15 audience attendees who unanimously agreed that the pro-active approach of the Council, with due diligence in research and adherence to due process and PHRF – NW bylaws was appreciated and one which they wished to see continue.

The first review included two well-sailed boats, the Sierra 26’s Uno and Dos. The end result is that there was a recommendation and motion made to adjust each boats ratings by 6 seconds faster, making Uno move from 81 to 75 and Dos from 78 to 71. Owner/Skipper Brad Butler was present for this action and his Corinthian Spirit of cooperation was commendable.

Five other boats, the Moore 24, J 29, J 33, Melges 32 and TP 52 were discussed with no resulting action.

Appeals heard included a self appeal of a base rating for the Aphrodite 101 was not supported by the Council. An appeal of the base rating of the Melges 24 was filed by the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, with a resulting change of the base and ODR rating changing to the faster from 99 to 90.

PHRF-NW remains committed to promoting fair and equitable sailboat racing throughout the Puget Sound Region. We look forward to seeing you all on the water.

On behalf of the entire PHRF-NW Handicapper’s Council, and in memory of Pat Nelson,

Neil Bennett, Chief Handicapper, Bellingham Yacht Club

Ed. Note: Thanks, Neil. I’m glad to hear of the attention being paid to the cruising classes. They’re growing and a great opportunity to build the sport with existing sailors who don’t have the interest in full-on race prep, for cruising boat owners and newcomers to the sport. It’ll be interesting to see if the rating changes to the Melges and the Sierras. With the hardware those boats accumulate, I don’t anticipate too many objections.