Now if this boat, which is NOT an SX, gets rated as such and its finishes get entered into Darline's calculations, well, eventually either the SX or the base 18 is going to get its Portsmouth number calculated incorrectly.
I really hope US sailing is not using numbers from boats like this in their Portsmouth calculations - if they are it's a wonder the numbers are as good as they are. Boats with any modifications let alone two shouldn't be used in calculating the base numbers, only used for evaluating the modification factors.
For example, last race I was at there was a Prindle 18-2 that was cut down to 16' and sailed with Prindle 16 rig. It was very slow (slower than the Prindle 16s) but was given the same number as an 18-2. If US sailing uses those results that will bring the 18-2 number up, which would be silly. Better to just ignore that result together (and yes, the score keeper noted what was up with that boat in the results he submitted to Darlene).
Anyway, it is important to me to be nice to the newcomers and not piss them off by giving them a number that the boat can't sail to. Maybe the rest of you have enough people showing up at your regattas that you can afford to do that.
Except for classes that have been actively raced for many years, "fairness" and "portsmouth" are mutually exclusive anyway. The F16's legitimate portsmouth number gives me far more heartache than any modified/homebuilt boat ever did.
