Yep it seems the Portsmouth rating could be adjusted for allot of boats. On the last leg of the Gt300 team Chums on an I-20 was quoted as miles ahead of the of the group but was passed by Cirrus R F18. The rating system shows the I20 at .593 and the F18 at .624 yet with a few miles ahead and according the numbers a faster boat Cirrus R beat him by 13 minutes? I did not hear of any boat problems with Chums and they have sailed the GT for years and leg 4 is Lee's home port and he is very skilled sailor so what happened?
If the newer F18 were the same as older one there would be no reason to buy a new one. So people with more money have an advantage its does not mean you will take first if you buy the newest F18 sailing is a skill even an art.
I am not advocating changing the Portsmouth ratings for any boat.. If the boat owners want to do this they can do so by sending the race results to US Sailing and ask for a redress on the rating as they will have the data to hack it up.
I know there is a pissing contest going on now with the NACRA 20 vs the Open 20 class to where the Open 20 folks want the same rating as the NACRA 20 while sailing with modified sail plans etc… Like I said a pissing contest!
Regarding distance racing, the DP-N rating is not the best, or to say it better, it is useless for distance racing. But this is my opinion! If I were king for the day I would look at adopting something like the SCHRS with stick adherence to the sail/boat/foil/bowsprit/rudder measurements
Getting back to where I was going with this is the possibility of setting up an Old School Class for the F-18. Maybe there is one that I don't know about, but I just don't see the need right now to convernt from a teardrop to a wing mast with the latest and greatest set of sails to be bit more equal to what is out there these days.
