We are psyched to see Craig Leweck of Scuttlebutt bring up one of our favorite issues. Recently, Leweck sat down with Dick Neville, Storm Trysail Club (STC) commodore and the chairman of the upcoming Annapolis Fall Regatta. Neville will also be the race committee chairman for Key West Race Week. Here is part of their conversation. The topic for discussion was handicap racing in the United States, what's working, what isn't, and what needs to change now.
The handicap landscape in USA is complicated, and has been for some time. There are lots of choices, with attempts to gain a consensus never fully getting there. Why is this? Partly accidental, partly intentional. Geography plays a part, as we have fleets very far apart and rarely getting together. But the situation is magnified by a weak national authority that provides no leadership in this area.
In nearly all well-developed sailing nations, there is a strong central authority who requires membership for participation, adopts policies that can work across their constituencies, and governs in a manner that is clear and responsive. In this context, US Sailing does not serve the most popular system, PHRF, so there are dozens of small PHRF factions, working diligently in a database vacuum, trying to handicap boats, while US Sailing has a database (generated from all the other rules) that can take these handicappers out of their tough and controversial calls.
The weakness at the top has allowed various factions to push for their “favorite” handicap rule, which is not necessarily an International Rule. Some regattas in the US, like Key West Race Week, are international events. We would like Block Island Race Week to attract more international entries, similar to Key West. Block Island Race Week has great PHRF participation, but the customers are not all happy with their handicaps, as the customers come from a diverse group of PHRF fleets.
Storm Trysail Club is now advocating a new choice, ORC. Why is this?
Without a National PHRF system, regional events that would like to attract PHRF type entries from outside the local PHRF domain have resorted to PHRF consortiums comprised of PHRF handicappers from various PHRF regions. These consortiums have tried to handicap entries, and while they have worked very hard and we should applaud their efforts, it has not been successful.
Participation in PHRF at Key West Race Week has continued to drop. We see ORC Club as a solution to this problem. For a similar cost to a PHRF Certificate, a boat can be rated by an International Rule and receive a certificate with multiple ratings for variations in wind strength and for inshore and offshore courses. This then has a better chance to fairly rate boats of different types competing in the same class.
What’s it take to get an ORC rating? The rating application is web-based and online at www.orc.org/clubapplication. Measurements common to any PHRF, IRC, or ORR certificate can be used as data to complete the application. The more measurement information provided, the more accurate the rating will be. US Sailing is going to issue the certificates for US applications, and they said they will open a portal on their website, but this has not happened yet.
Leweck and Neville get into a further discussion of ORC versus ORR, and why ORR isn't currently being promoted by US Sailing. Read the full interview here.
