I have a general question about handicapping for formula classes, how it should be done and what people's personal opinions are. This is directly related to the US Portsmouth system, but all opinions are welcome. This should not degrade to a Texel vs Portsmouth debate. Let's keep the discussion geared toward a handicap system that gets it handicaps from race results and not engineering specifics.

FACTS: US Portsmouth has entries for Formula 16, Blade F16, T4.9 F16, GCat F16 (maybe other F16s, I just did a quick survey and could have missed one). Currently, all handicap numbers are the same for all boats throughout all wind ranges (this is a good thing) - with the exception of the F16 Uni designation (IMO, F16 uni should do VERY well on Portsmouth in the right conditions in an Open fleet) - more on the Uni vs. Double later).

My questions are:

1. In your opinion, should the individual boat handicaps be done away with and simply have a F16 and F16 Uni handicap? I am concerned at large open regattas, F16s will be scored on their individual boat handicap and NOT their F16 handicap. It is a moot point today because the numbers are all the same - but that could change as individual race results are accumulated.

2. Same argument as above, but it is possible for it to happen today. Uni has a slower handicap than Double per Portsmouth. I'd hate to see a Uni correct out over a Double when class rules dictate they are scored together (even though it is an Open fleet).

Options/Questions are:

1. Seems like petitioning US Sailing to drop the individual boat type handicaps would prevent the divergence of F16 handicaps from happening.

2. Make sure all RCs using the F16 designation only .

3. Does US Saiilng have a way to make sure all F16 ratings evolve together (i.e. when one changes, they all change)?

4. Does all of this not matter, since we are talking about Open fleet and not class racing? I hope no one agrees with this.

This is relevant to all forumla classes under Portsmouth - just change F16 to F18 and Blade to Tiger, etc. They do not have to worry about Uni vs Double.

Is this clear enough? I can try again.