Originally Posted by Mike Hill
Originally Posted by 353rob
Dear all, It seems a shame to drop this subject, I’ve got a question on this, I’ve got a A-class racing nationally under SCHRS and we get a lot of heat from other classes when I mention that the A does not rate well under SCHRS. Just to give you a bit of background on this, I used to race F18’s and have been a national champ a number of times in F18/ Tiger class before I moved across to the A. But since getting the A a few years back along with some other good sailors any A just cannot get to the top of the fleet at events when I know if I was back in my Tiger I would easily have been up there. The conditions have to be just perfect ( very light airs, flat water, very short courses) before an A-class can start to rate to SCHRS.

Thus my question is if I believe all the chat about that SCHRS is rating the A perfectly and I’m crap, why is it that the A-class is getting time under PY? For example in Australia the A and F18 race under Victoria Yardstick ( I know nothing about the Aus racing so I may be wrong on this, please correct me if need be) and it give the A time on the water, and that nation has some of the world’s best F18 and A class sailors racing against each other and there is no chat on the web complaining about their PY system. Am I missing something fundamental here?

Aus PY 2008 numbers http://www.vic.yachting.org.au/site/yachting/vic/downloads/Yardsticks07_08.pdf
Aus PY 2005 numbers http://www.vic.yachting.org.au/?Page=12596

The same story with the USA’s PY DPN numbers, the A is given time against the F18.
All the Best
Rob


I can tell you in the US under the PN system the A has a sweetheart rating. Mostly because the good sailors never race in the open classes. So the times never get turned in. I know I was sailing well one weekend and had a heck of a time beating them boat for boat against my I20. I think an A should rate right about the same as an F18, possibly faster. Definitely not slower.



The problem you've got there is that there is a drastic difference in performance potential throughout the wind range between a main-only and a main/jib/spin boat. If the A isn't flying a hull upwind, it will still probably get to the top of the course first, but the spinnakers are going to whiz right by going downhill. If the A can fly a hull upwind but not downwind, it's going to be pretty even. If the A can fly a hull up AND downwind - it's probably got a bit of an advantage.

It's evermore important to use wind specific ratings when racing such dissimilar boats because they behave so differently in the different wind strengths. The wind corrected ratings between N20/F18/A-cat seem to support this performance characteristic.

Jake Kohl