VSS Handicapping

VSS uses the Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF) system.  This is the most popular system for keel boats in use in the US.  The PHRF system is administered by the US Sailing Association, our National Authority.  The country is divided up into several regions and our local Authority is West Florida PHRF.  If you want to race with VSS it would be best to join WFPHRF, but that is not absolutely necessary.  We will be glad to assign a provisional PHRF rating; however, you would almost always get a more favorable rating by joining WFPHRF. 

The way we use PHRF is normally the "Time-on-Distance" (TOD) method.  Each boat is given several different ratings which may be different depending on the type of course sailed and whether or not she uses a spinnaker.  Most of the races that VSS sets use the "random leg course (RLC)" ratings.  These ratings have units of seconds/ nautical miles (s/nm).  The idea is that we all race against an imaginary boat with a rating of "zero" (0) (we'll call that boat Rocket) and each boat's elapsed time in the race is "corrected" by subtracting the length of the course multiplied by its rating. If everyone sailed a perfect race in perfect conditions and if PHRF is perfect, then the corrected time of each boat would be the same as the elapsed time of Rocket. 

To make the example concrete I will use my C&C 36 Summertime as an example.  Her RLC Cruising Class rating is 189, so if I sail a 10 nm course in 7200 s (that's 2 hours) my corrected time would be 7200s - 189s/nm x 10nm = 5310 s (1 hr, 28 m, 30s).  Rocket would have to sail the course in less time than that to beat me.  It should be noted that a boat may have a negative PHRF rating if the Rating Committee thinks she is faster than Rocket.

There is an alternative method of using PHRF ratings called Time-on-Time (TOT) that does not require knowing the length of the course.  Each system has it good and bad points.  TOT is much more common in Europe than it is in the US.

The local Sailing Association is the Sarasota Bay Yachting Association (SBYA).  If you want to race in the SBYA regattas you must get a PHRF rating from WFPHRF.