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National PHRF Appeal - 2005 |
On October 11, 2005, a hearing panel of the USPHRF National Appeal Committee ruled as follows:
"Lizzie B, a well prepared and well sailed boat, is judged to have a current handicap of 123 that is too harsh. The USPHRF National Appeal Committee assigns a handicap of 132 that is more consistent with the Mariah 27's speed potential."
There has been some confusion in Marina del Rey about this change in our rating. So, we are presenting on this page some details of the process, as well as some history of our rating and our arguments for the change.
Set forth to the right is a chart showing how the Mariah 27 should rate under SoCal PHRF based on how the Mariah 27 rates elsewhere in the country when compared to some similar and standard boats. For example, elsewhere in the country the Mariah 27 gets 65.2 sec/mi from the J/35. In MDR the J/35 rates 69 sec/mi so the predicted rating for the Mariah 27 in MDR is 134.2 sec/mi (69 sec/mi + 65.2 sec/mi). Our new rating (132, as assigned by USPHRF) is still about 6 sec/mi faster than is predicted by comparing the Mariah 27 to boats elsewhere in the country. It is no "gift" despite what some critics may say.
Procedures on Appeal
The national appeal process required that we fill out and file the national appeal form (available from USPHRF here). We filed the form with the USPHRF National Appeal Committee on May 2, 2005, appealling our SoCal PHRF rating (i.e., the SoCal PHRF rating for a Mariah 27). Shortly thereafter, SoCal PHRF filed their response. A three-member hearing panel was assigned to hear our appeal by the Chairman of the USPHRF National Appeal Committee. The three members were from three different USPHRF areas: Lake Michigan PHRF, PHRF New England and PHRF of Chesapeake. Over the summer, several unsuccessful attempts were made to schedule a hearing via telephone. Finally, on October 11, 2005 a hearing was held via telephone conference. Each side was allowed 10 minutes to present its case (5 min by Lizzie B, 5 min by SoCal PHRF, 5 more min. by Lizzie B and a final 5 min. by SoCal PHRF). The three members of the hearing panel then posed additional questions to each side. Later that day the hearing panel issued the ruling quoted above.
History
Back in 1998 the rating for Lizzie B was dropped from 132 to 123 by the local Area B PHRF board. We appealed 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 each time. In 2004 we appealed the local Area B Board decision to the SoCal Regional PHRF Board. That appeal was denied as well. We then appealed that denial to the national PHRF Appeal Committee, asking for a more fair and accurate rating that is consistent with the rating for the Mariah 27 elsewhere in the country (where the same boat would rate 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 calculate 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 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 in 2005 and 2006, 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 owed Friction Loss 15 sec/mi. That was a 21 sec/mi difference!! We asked the assigned hearing panel of the PHRF National 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. As indicated above, USPHRF eliminated some, but not all, of the difference and assigned a rating of 132.
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 (a picture is available here). She rates 135 and is owned by the sailmaker/owner of the UK loft in Erie, Pennsylvania. Lizzie B would rate 135-141 in Lake Erie.
