Hi Doug,

this is tami. I spoke to Mike Cole the other day, we've got him in our prayers.

Hey, are y'all coming in for Labor Day weekend? The CCC's having a Beach Party at OSYC, so pack up the boys and the boats and come spend the weekend sailing and having a good time. I'll go buy some food and colas, the bar's open at the YC, and you know what it's like to sail at Ocean Springs...

On to the subject at hand.

Lissen. I know who and where you're sailing. You and I both know that there's not a big onedesign group here. So what? Like the man said, don't listen to the onedesign nazis, you sail for pleasure FAR more often than you race. And besides, as a race official, I'm just damn glad you're racing AT ALL. Snobbery makes for low turnout numbers.

You should be scored thusly. Your number is dependent on how skilled the scorer is, or whether they even bother with it, or whether they bother with the wind adjustments (most don't). If you don't like the numbers assigned at a race, question them. You should be assigned your no. at registration, so do it right then.

If you want a general understanding of Portsmouth handicaps, go to http://ussailing.org/portsmouth and read. Their description and instructions are pretty comprehensive.

The basic formula is thus:
(number for class/wind condition)*(modification factors)

Now there are also wind dependent handicaps, so you oughta have like 5 different numbers, actually.

Base numbers for Hobie 18:
dp-n Beaufort 0-1 BN2-3 BN4 BN5-9
71.5 77.0 73.6 69.7 66.8

Your modification factors are, given the only things which aren't class legal on your boat are the sails (eg you're sailing at class weight, you have class boat parts, etc.)

Oversize main =
For non-class legal mainsail, of greater sail area* than standard main (t-I don't know what your new sailarea is)
0.980 0.969 0.975 0.980 0.985
Oversize jib = For larger than standard jib
0.995 0.984 0.990 0.995 1.000

So, ok.
Your base number is:
dp-n (OSmain) (OSjib)
71.5 * 0.980 * 0.995 = 69.7

If you're sailing in Beaufort 0-1, your number is:
77.0 * 0.969 * 0.984 = 73.4

and so forth. Most RC's will just use the base number and not bother with the wind dependent factoring, it makes for a lot of math. Sailwave (my compliments to Colin, who subscribes to this list) is real nice in that you can type modified boats in as a 'class/boat type' and it 'remembers' the mods from then on.

You will NOT, with these new sails, be able to be race class with the Hobie 18s. You are now an open class Portsmouth fleet guy. Like the guy said, if you keep your old sails and race with them, you will be class legal and can race in fleet with other H18s.

Hope this answers your questions. You know my email, write and ask if you have more

sea ya
tami
Mamadore, and Portsmouth Naziette, Coast Catamaran Club