Vital Information for PHRFers
New Measurement Rules
Can you please publish the following as an article in the December issue of 48° North to reach sailboat racers before year-end?
PHRF-NW will be changing its handicapping system and measurement protocol in March 2007, and all boat racers need to re-measure their sails to have a valid handicap effective in March. The YC PHRF handicappers have been working on this for some time, with their members, and mailings have gone out, but some people aren’t getting it and it needs to go to a wider audience. Hopefully this will get to some of them. That is the subject of the item, below.
There will be shorter follow-on articles planned for January, February, and March issues, as specific details are finalized, that we would like for you to publish. Thanks for your effort in helping us with this handicapping change.
Thanks,
Tom Schacht (TTPYC)
PHRF Handicaps Change March 1
The Pacific Handicap Racing Fleet of the NW, the organization that handicaps most of the sailboat racing on the Sound, Straits, and the inland NW, is improving our handicaps. We are changing the way we measure sails. This is a big job. Racers, we need your help to make this a smooth transition.
The Handicappers have been working for several years to achieve a more complete, competitive rating protocol for sailboat racing under the PHRF system, especially to accommodate varied boat configurations. This new protocol adds to the number of measuring points on sails, and changes some of the formulas that compute ratings from those sail areas. Main sails will now include more measurements near the top of the sail, to better measure the size of the high roach mains of the newer sport boats. Spinnakers will include more girth measurements, to evaluate the total square footage with more accuracy. Jibs, too, will have more measurements to better figure the square footage. This means everyone needs to re-measure their sails the new way.
The goal is to make the system more accurate, and to make the competition between the older boats and the newer sport boats fairer. It will give any well sailed boat a chance to beat any other less well sailed boat, regardless of the type of boat. PHRF has always been the rating system which includes all types of racing yachts. These changes are made in that tradition, to accurately rate the wide variety of modern yachts.
To implement this process, PHRF is asking all members to re-measure their racing sails: main, largest jib, and largest spinnaker. Instructions and forms to do this were mailed to all PHRF members in October. If you need help, and/or if you lost the form, please contact your local handicapper. He can help or find someone who can. Once re-measured, get the new measurements to him. Also, the PHRF-NW website (www.phrf-nw.org) will be periodically updated with the new rating protocol info.
This should be done as soon as possible, as this will help your yacht club and PHRF complete the process. The closure date for input for next year’s roster is year-end. If you can get your sails re-measured by then, your handicap will be listed in the 2007 roster. Effective March 1, 2007, the current handicaps will no longer be valid, and you will need a new handicap to go racing.
This change requires a lot of work. There are many volunteers working hard to make this transition as smooth as possible. But if many of the 1200 PHRF members decide that March is a long way off and wait until February ... a log-jam may happen and getting a rating processed could take longer. To paraphrase a certain bear, only you can prevent log jams. We need your help. Please re-measure your sails, now.
Nov 1, 2007
Jerry Cornell, Tom Schacht, and Steve Worcester
On behalf of the Board of PHRF NW
We’ve also put this notice into the race section so as not to miss any racers. Everyone is always talking about upgrading PHRF, well here it is. Note again that “Effective March 1, 2007, the current handicaps will no longer be valid, and you will need a new handicap to go racing.” If you haven’t already done so, contact your handicapper today.
Link to Drew’s Mini Transat Campaign
I grew up in Washington, and my Dad still lives and races there in Longview, so I am very familiar with your magazine and website! I am now living on the east coast in Newport, RI, and have spent the last two years working on my Mini Transat campaign. (I know that you followed Jonathan McKee’s project too). So, anyhow, the boat is about ready to splash after a very long build in our garage here in Newport, and we are starting to hit the sponsorship trail to get enough help to get me to the starting line in 2009 in France. As a part of that we need to get the website linked from as many sailing sites as we can, and hopefully get enough mentions that we can show potential sponsors the worth of the investment.
A link to our site would be most appreciated!
www.usa650.com
Best Regards,
Drew Wood
Check this out people, it’s an unbelievable race. The link is added under “pointers” under sailing links. Best of luck on the big ocean in that little boat..
Familiar Weather in New Zealand
I really screwed up. Our destination was a “wildlife refuge” called Raoul Island in the Kermadec chain (a New Zealand possession). It’s almost impossible to get permission to land there, but the government owed our charter boat owner a huge favor so he got permission for us. Unfortunately, departure day turned so hectic that I completely forgot to get the 48° North shot while on Raoul. The wind had gusted over 30 knots for two days and they wanted to get us back to the ship before the seas got any worse (the Zodiac rammed against a rocky shore and we jumped on board, one of those). Even though we were in the lee of the island, I started getting seasick when back on board the ship (Braveheart, 118 feet overall) at anchor, even with the dreaded scopolamine patch in place. Some sailor I am.
Anyway, here’s one for your pages. “Bellevue sailor Mike Mraz catching up on the local sailing gossip while enjoying a very wet Seattle kind of day in the harbor of Auckland, New Zealand.”
All the best,
Mike Mraz
Bellevue, WA.
Sounds exciting. We appreciate the effort.
Wood Beams Bolster Busted Boom
On Friday, before the Around the County Race, we were on our way in Neptune’s Car, (Santa Cruz 70) to Orcas Island from Seattle. We were sailing with the small main and cruising chute. During an attempted jibe in 39 knots true wind, we successfully wrapped the spinnaker around the forestay and broke the boom in half, tearing the main sail. With patience we were able to secure the broken piece of boom to the remainder and then get the spin down by spiking the tack. At this point we decided it was best to continue on to Anacortes so we rolled out the jib and had a rum while contemplating our next move.
Joe Grieser and Bart came up with a plan and a materials list. With that in hand I got on the phone and called our good friend, Gray Hawken in Anacortes. He showed up at Cap Sante Marina: 2 - 6 ft. 2x12’s, 2 - 6 ft. 2x8’s, a sheet of 11/8 thick plywood, 2 pieces of 2 ft. long ½ inch all thread with lots of nuts and washers, a sawsall, drill motor and drill bit.
We put the 2x12’s inside the boom, ripped 2 - 8 foot pieces of ply for either side and put the 2x8’s on the outside, drilled it and thru-bolted the whole thing together. We then used water bottle caps and Gorilla tape to cover the nuts, after which we lashed it with line and put red strapping tape around that. During the process Gray called to see if we needed anything else and brought us a skill saw and another bottle of rum. We were finished and back on the boat in a little over two hours.
We made the start of the race on time and with full sail. First day was light with a big flood tide. Being in the last start, the small boats showed us where to go. We short tacked up the right hand beach until the local knowledge went out and we followed suit. At this point we were lead boat, having put Icon (Dick Robert’s Perry 66) away nicely. Our goal was to beat them boat for boat. As we rounded the south end of Lopez the wind freed up but was still a headsail reach. This year we had to go outside the Salmon Bank buoy. About halfway there we set the ½ ounce kite and were sailing nicely, when it decided to disintegrate – no luff or collapse – it had just had enough. Wind was only about 9 knots. We waited a bit and when the wind freed up a little more we put up the ¾ ounce. Icon was coming on and we just stayed on top of her. Being a little faster she got quite close and we had a great jibing duel, with us able to jibe quicker and stay ahead. Wind kept getting lighter to the finish and we had them held out to the boat end. Sailing by the lee, holding the boom out, we finished a mere 6 seconds ahead of them.
What a day, finishing 3rd on corrected time. We finished right around 1 pm so lots of time to enjoy the dock party at Roche Harbor. At one point I’m sure there were over 20 people inside the Car as we retold the boom story over and over again.
Sunday was dreary and light for the start of the second day, with a promise to fill in. We started on port and used the Disney .5 kite (chute off Roy Disney’s old Pyewacket), still a piece of shit, and couldn’t get the boat going. Icon got through us to leeward. We peeled to the 3/4 and finally got going.
Not long after Turn Point it started to get windy and reachy. First we went with the #1 and the #3. Icon was probably 3 minutes ahead at half way point. It got windier, up to 30 knots and we switched to the #4 which didn’t seem to work, so went back to the #3, all the time slowly gaining on Icon. It was a dog fight to the end again with them crossing the finish 38 seconds ahead, giving them the combined shortest time by 32 seconds. Not bad for a boat that owes us 9 minutes in that course.
Everyone made the 4:15 ferry and had a harrowing ride back in 50 knots of wind and high waves coming down the car deck and splashing on the upper passenger decks. The ferry also had to standby a vessel in distress until the CG got there.
Declan, Alex and I proceeded up to Saltspring Island on Monday and home on Tuesday, battling bad currents 40 kts of wind in Admiralty Inlet, down to 2 knots over the bottom for hours. Took us 14 + hours to get home.
What’s up for the boom? At present there are three options. With a lot of work and materials I could actually make a very good repair to this boom, of course in the process it would create more hard spots and optional places for new disasters. I have also contacted the original manufacturer of this boom and could get a new aluminum one for $4500 to $5000. I also am in contact with the boat Skylark, ex-Pyewacket, and they just happen to have a carbon boom laying around after they “de-turboed” the boat. They are going to measure it and let me know if it will work or not.
Paul LaMarche
Neptune’s Car
Just making the race was amazing, but to take line honors the next day is pretty impressive. A truly great sailing tale that should be great for beers at the bar for many years.
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