National PHRF Appeal

On May 2, 2005, we filed an appeal of our SoCal PHRF rating (i.e., the SoCal PHRF rating for a Mariah 27) with the US PHRF Appeal Committee. We expect a hearing on our appeal during July with a decision shortly thereafter. Here is a brief description of the history and our arguments for a rating change:

History

Back in 1998 the rating for Lizzie B was dropped from 132 to 123 by the local Area B PHRF board. We appealled that rating change to the SoCal Regional PHRF Board but that appeal was denied (in other words, the rating change from 132 to 123 was sustained). At the time there was no appeal from that decision so Dick Hampikian (Lizzie B's co-owner back in 1998 and sole owner today) started promoting Americap II, on a local, regional and national basis. Over the next 3 years (1999, 2000 and 2001) we sailed exclusively under Americap II.

In 2002 Americap II was not offered as an option so we switched back to PHRF. In both 2003 and 2004 we appealed our rating to the local Area B PHRF Board. Our appeal was denied both times. In 2004 we appealed the local Area B Board decision to the SoCal Regional PHRF Board. That appeal was denied as well. We are now appealing that denial to the national PHRF Appeal Committee. We are asking for a more fair and accurate rating that is consistent with the rating for the Mariah 27 elsewhere in the country (where it rates 135-144).

One note of interest: We recently learned that in 1998 a private "behind-the-scenes" argument for changing our rating was "Lizzie B won in 1997 by an average of two minutes per race." Unfortunately, this statement was not made publicly so Dick did not know about it and therefore never had a chance to refute it. In fact, this statement is at best highly misleading and at worst an outright lie. Calculating an "average" by using only selected races (i.e., those races in which Lizzie B was 1st) is statistically improper. Consider an example of the problem – had we won a single race by two minutes it would have been "accurate" to state that we "won by an average of two minutes per race" even though we only won one race! The only statistically proper and fair way to caculate an "average" is to use all races. Averaging all of the 1997 races our average finish was 55 seconds (10.2 sec/mi) behind the 1st place boat. Even if you discard our worst and best finishes our average was still 13 seconds (2.3 sec/mi) behind the 1st place boat. We suspect the statement "Lizzie B won by an average of two minutes per race" was done to deliberately mislead the Area and Regional PHRF boards and harm us but even if it wasn't it certainly was incredibly unfair and prejudicial (particularly since representatives of Lizzie B never had a chance to refute it!).

Argument for Rating Change

There are only a few Mariah 27s still racing around the country. We have been able to locate four boats outside of SoCal PHRF. Those boats all rate significantly slower than Lizzie B rates under SoCal PHRF - in the range of 135-144.

There are two boats that seem to be relatively active: Insatiable is virtually the same boat as Lizzie B and was a regular competitor when both boats were sailing the MORC circuit – the two boats had the same speed and were regularly overlapped at mark roundings. She rates 138 under Chesapeake PHRF, her home PHRF area. Hat Trick (aka Jazzy Jr.) is similar expect that she has an outboard instead of an inboard. She rates 132 under Detroit PHRF, her home PHRF area. Both boats have been travelling down to the Key West Race Week the last couple of years. At the KWRW this year (2005) Insatiable rated 144 while Hat Trick (sailing under the name Jazzy Jr.) rated 138 (the difference between the boats is 6 sec/mi because Insatiable has an inboard engine while Hat Trick has an outboard). By comparison, a J/30, such as Friction Loss, rated 138 at the 2005 KWRW and also rates 138 in Marina del Rey. In other words, at KWRW Friction Loss would owe Lizzie B 6 sec/mi while in Marina del Rey Lizzie B owes Friction Loss 15 sec/mi. That is a 21 sec/mi difference!! We are asking the national PHRF Appeal Committee to eliminate some or all of that difference. In contrast to the SoCal rating of 123, Lizzie B would rate 138 either in Detroit or on the Chesapeake and would rate 144 at KWRW.

There are two boats under Lake Erie PHRF that have ratings but don't appear to be actively raced. Fearless is similar to Lizzie B and Insatiable but with a longer J and an oversize genoa (170%). She rates 129. Pigs at Sea is similar to Lizzie B except that she has an outboard engine and a slightly shorter rig. She rates 135 and is owned by the sailmaker/owner of the UK loft in Erie, Pennsylvania. Lizzie B would apparently rate 135-141 in Lake Erie.

Based on the ratings for the same boat elsewhere in the country (135 to 144), we feel that there is a fairly good chance that we will receive some rating adjustment as the result of our appeal. The issue is how much.

Last updated: July 9, 2005