Handicap Systems for Sailboat Racing

Handicap systems are intended to make boats, not skippers, equal in performance. Because many sailboat races include different makes and models of boats, a handicap system is used. Handicap numbers are used to correct the finish time of the competing boats. The actual time it took the boats to finish the race is adjusted based on either the total time of the race (time-on-time correction) or the length of the race (time-on-distance correction).

These systems allow a boat like a Bristol 29.9 to theoretically compete on an equal basis with a Catalina 30 or a Pearson 303.

The PHRF is just one of the handicapping systems prevalent in the United States. Others are Portsmouth, IMS, Americap, and MORC. US SAILING’s Offshore Committee administers these systems. Each system's committee publishes detailed information about its system. The Race Management Committee publishes a Race Management Handbook that contains a good discussion of handicapping. In addition many computer scoring programs include features that aid applying handicaps and in scoring races.

PHRF- The largest handicap fleets in the United States now sail under the Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF) system. The PHRF supplies a single correction factor that is applied regardless of the conditions of the race, but the numbers are assigned locally to reflect actual performance of the boat type sailing in local conditions. Both time-on-distance and time-on-time handicapping is used under PHRF:

The basic time-on-distance formula is: TA = ( D x PHRF ) / 60

TA = Time Allowance in minutes

D = course length in miles

PHRF = rating in seconds per mile

Subtracting the time allowance (TA) from the actual time it took the boat to sail the race (elapsed time or ET) equals the corrected time (CT).

Utilizing PHRF for time-on-time corrections is done by first calculating a time correction factor (TCF). The simplest way to calculate TCF is:

TCF = 600 / (480 + PHRF)

Corrected time then equals elapsed time multiplied by TCF.

The above formulas represent the simplest form of the PHRF system only and additional information is available from the PHRF Committee. Computer scoring information for PHRF is also available.

Base PHRF ratings may be found at http://www.phrfne.org/baseh.htm