Portsmouth handicap number for a Sage 17 sailboat.

[StephenC]

I have a 2014 Sage 17, hull number 21. This will be my second full season of racing her in the handicap fleet of my sailing club. My previous boat was a Montgomery 15, which has a Portsmouth number of 108, which made me the slowest boat in the fleet, so the race committee would have to wait for me to finish, before starting the next race. That's one reason I moved up to a Sage 17 & I am finishing much closer to the rest of the fleet than I was in the Montgomery 15.
    Most of the other boats in my handicap fleet are Sunfish & Capri 14s, which have handicap numbers of 99.6 & 99.4 respectively. Our club's scorekeeper was using 100 for my boat, which lines up with the information I got from a person who had worked with Sage Marine, who was very helpful when I was buying the boat.
    I have asked Google what the Portsmouth Handicap number for a Sage 17 is, several times & I get a different number each time, between 105 & 106 which I think would be too generous to me.
    My sense is that 100 is a bit low. On a windy day, how can I hope to keep up with my fleet mates who can plane? On a really windy day, my ability to reef is a real bonus against my fleet mates who are dangerously overpowered.
    Does anybody else race a Sage 17? What handicap number do you use? What has been your experience?
      Thank you, Stephen.
     

[rfrance0718]

At our club, our second race on Sundays is a mass start handicap race. I've sailed in about 500 of these races over a 30 year period. Here are some observations.

With one design racing you always know exactly how you do. With handicap racing you have to interpret the outcomes. Over the years, you find boats and skippers that you are competitive against. You beat them on a good day, loose on a bad day.  I race both the Thistle and the Laser. The ratings always have some valididy, but are not perfect. Lasers and Interlakes, for example,  are only a couple of points apart, even though the Interlake is 6 feet longer. When I'm sailing the Laser there are some Interlakes who I usually beat scratch, some that I usually beat with my points, and some that I rarely beat, even with my points. When I'm fleet racing with other Lasers or Thistles it works kind of the same way. Some I usually beat, some are more like I win some-loose some, and some I don't beat often, but I always know exactly where you stand. The handicap results are similar when I'm sailing the Thistle, except that I win on corrected time more often in the Thistle than I do in the Laser. I'm a more experienced Thistle sailor than a Laser sailor.

Our Thistle fleet is very competitive and quite evenly matched. We all win some and we all loose some. Usually, the Thistles beat all of the other boats scratch, but usually one of the other classes win the race on corrected time.  Some boats do well in one condition while others do well in some other type of wind. The Thistle is the fastest of our fleets, and also the most consistent over the range of conditions. In fact, the Thistle is the base line boat for the whole Portsmouth system, with a rating of 83 across all wind velocities.   So the  Thistle doesn't have a favorite condition.

We have only 7 different types of boats at our club. All are cb boats that can plane. Our numbers range from 83 to about 101.

I've been sailing these races for about 30 years. I used to win the year long series some, but now I don't come very close. I can tell you that I've slipped in both handicap competitions and in one design. The Portsmouth system is accurate enough to confirm that I'm not as good as I used to be.

Have fun and race against the boats that you are around. Don't worry about the boats way ahead or behind. If you don't beat your closest competitors you won't beat the others, scratch or with corrected time.