C34 Racing Rating Explanation

[Stu Jackson]

On another forum, someone asked about one design racing.  I responded, and George Bean also provided a very nice discussion of how our C34 racing rules work.  I thought it might be interesting to many, how we work here in San Francisco, and engage others to explain how some other fleets work.  Thanks to George for a great explanation.

My post:  A slight clarification (to a point of view that said ALL OD classes have exactly the same boats)

One design racing CAN have handicaps. The reason is that all ODs are NOT the same. In our C34 Fleet One, ratings within the group are based on prop (folding, fixed), size of headsail (max 130, some have smaller ones), roller furling, height off the deck. Ratings vary from 157 to 187. I only wish they'd give me more time because of my barbecue and the dinghy engine on the pulpit! It's subtle, but it's worked for us. Many other classes do NOT have handicapping, and rely on the class rules to maintain "equality" between all the boats. For combination cruiser-racers, it's not always that easy. Other areas of the country have other ratings, but the idea is point out that even folks like us cruisers with a small jib can race with the "professionals."

George's post:

Clarification of the C34 One Design Rule
Allow me to expand upon Stu's note. Like other One Design (OD) fleets, The Catalina 34 International Association has a comprehensive one design rule to which all C34's racing OD must adhere to. Our rule must cover boats produced over a twenty year production span, which encompasses numerous design evolutions that Catalina is so famous for. For example, 3 bladed propellers and furling jibs were mere options in the early production years and are now standard equipment. Our boats have also been built as either a standard or tall rig. We also recognize that our boats are bought primarily for pleasure sailing and cruising, which also influences our rule. For example, we do not allow modifications to the hull, exotic sail construction like the 3DL process and the boats cannot be stripped of their (cruising) interiors. Because our owners have purchased the C34 primarily for cruising and not racing, we do not need to have specific rules governing crew weight, number of sails carried, or age of inventory like racing classes such as the J-105's. Those classes have standards to which builders must adhere to where as, we must adjust our rule to fit the design evolution of our manufacturer. PHRF is different in that it seeks to make adjustments that will allow fundamentally different boats to race against each other. It assumes that all of those boats are similarly equipped. Whereas our rule seeks to adjust for dissimilarly equipped boats within a single class.

Our racing fleet is evenly divided between those who have optimized (within the OD rule) their boats for PHRF racing and those who have equipped their boats primarily for cruising. Our racing fleet philosophy is to welcome all types of racers from the PHRF campaigners to the weekend cruisers. One of the ways in which we were able to cast the net wide for participants is to offer generous adjustments to the basic PHRF number that makes the cruiser types more competitive with the racers than what the ordinary PHRF adjustments would have provided. For example, we adjust for roller furling headsails, tall rigs, fixed bladed propellers, and small (110% and smaller) headsails.

Our data base spans twenty years and close to a hundred OD races which we review periodically as a committee to determine if changes to the adjustments are in order. The Northern California PHRF committee has consulted on our furling headsail adjustment as well as numerous propeller manufacturers on the drag coefficients for various types of propellers. As Stu said, our OD rule provides some generous adjustments. The net effect of our rule is to drive up the general competitiveness of our class. The top finishers in our OD tend to be at the top of their respective PHRF divisions and our cruisers, well, tend to be fast cruisers. We feel that our one design rule strengthens our class and is in keeping with the Corinthian nature of our sport.

George Bean
Chief Measurer,
Catalina 34 International Association