Thom,

While all of what you said is true, it is noteworthy that the Portsmouth rating does not use data from distance races (to my knowledge). They only use course racing information. It is a fairly rare case when the SC20 finds it's way around a buoy course so it's rating, and a few other boat types, is a bit unsubstantiated.

I'm beginning to slowly waver regarding whether I like the Portsmouth or the Texel type rating systems. On one hand, the Texel system overcomes the big flaw in the Portsmouth system where 'rating creep' takes place when a boat is not very active or where there simply isn't enough data to support a fair rating for a given boat. On the other hand, I feel that the Texel system is a bit 'set in stone' and has to ignore countless complicated boat design parameters in order for a human being to be able to calculate a rating. Portsmouth also allows different correction factors for different wind strengths - does Texel do that?

My personal feeling as that since distance races and buoy races are so different that we may need two different rating systems for each type of race. Perhaps a Portsmouth Distance rating would be in order that would be put together based on actual race information? More and more catamaran races are turning into distance races afterall. The Tybee 500 is going to use the Texel system in 2005 and it should be interesting to see.