BHYC PHRF Race Scoring System

The system of scoring applied to BHYC races is the "Performance Handicap Racing Formula" (PHRF, for short), a system with flexibility in application because under PHRF every boat's rating starts from its predicted seconds to sail a nautical mile--the higher the PHRF base rating, the slower the boat--then PHRF factors in an additional number of seconds to take account of racing conditions. So if one boat has a PHRF rating of 150, and another is 250, the suggestion is that no matter how well the slower boat is prepared, equipped, crewed, and skippered, the 250 boat is going to take about 100 seconds longer to sail one nautical mile than the boat rated at 150. But neither boat is expected to sail that nautical mile in the time suggested by the base rating of 150 or 250. The additional time is the portion that takes account of race conditions.

Some races are slow because so much of the race is upwind or because the wind is light (they call for the PHRF number plus an additional 600 seconds or more to sail that nautical mile from mark to mark); others are very fast because they are almost entirely off the wind in moderate wind or because the wind is strong (they call for PHRF base rating plus 500 seconds or less to cover the same distance). This range is how PHRF time correction permits making an allowance for faster or slower race conditions.

Putting these elements together, if conditions are normal (10 to 15 knots of breeze, and a reasonable balance of beating, reaching, and running), then the "average" boat's PHRF plus 550 is the numerator over which the other boats' PHRF's plus 550 are divided to find the time correction factor for each of the other competitors. In more formulaic terms, Corrected Time=Elapsed Time multiplied by the Time Correction Factor (or TCF) where the TCF for any boat (let's call it boat X) is the average boat's PHRF plus the race conditions value divided by X's PHRF plus race conditions value. Obviously the choice of the number for the race conditions add-on is somewhat arbitrary and subjective, but widely used numbers offer at least a consensus of arbitrariness in this choice. The factor inputs for scoring the different race conditions at BHYC are the values promoted by US Sailing and New England PHRF.

Unfortunately, since PHRF Time On Time scoring is fairly new to this region (on this side of the international border), the PHRF scoring that first appeared in this locality (that of the "Northumberland Straight Yachting Association") is at variance with PHRF methodology described above. The NSTYA has ruled that racing conditions and the mix of competitors never vary. Every NSTYA "yacht" gets an NSTYA PHRF base rating, but one and only one NSTYA TCF to be applied to each and every race regardless of conditions. Here, the application of PHRF has had, and will continue to have, more respect for reality, more variability in application.