Ahoy PHRF Fleet...

Spring is almost here. Frostbite racing is starting. Boat preparation continues. Crew communications are warming up. It's an exciting time of year.

As we covered in our last newsletter, the Genoa Roller Furler credit verbiage is being revised to remove the loopholes that have allowed some of our fleet to improve their ratings without sacrificing performance. If your boat is getting a genoa RF credit, we need to hear from you. Our delegates approved a temporary grandfathering in which you will get PARTIAL credit but will not receive the full 9 second rating credit. If you have one of the loophole exploiting sails that is molded, laminated, shaped or otherwise performance improved over the standard paneled Dacron delivery sail for which this credit was designed, you will no longer be receiving the full RF credit. If you are one of our members who has the intended credit sail made of woven Dacron with the prescribed UV cover, you will be able to get up to the full 9 second RF rating credit. ALL owners who are getting ANY RF credit on their rating, need to communicate with your handicappers so that we can verify the type of sail you have and equitably adjust ratings accordingly.

CBYRA High Point for One Design and Handicap Fleets will be awarded this Saturday at 10 AM at the Maryland Yacht Club in Pasadena, Maryland. Our fleet's PHRF Distance Series trophies will also be awarded at the same event. Everyone who will be awarded trophies should have been notified. CBYRA has a registration on their website for all who plan to attend. www.cbyra.org. Our fleet's 2019 High Point and Distance Series champions are published in the results section of our website. www.phrfchesbay.org/page/results.

We are updating our rating appeal page as ratings receive their 1st and subsequent readings and appeals are considered for approval. Fleet input on rating appeals are welcome as a change in a boat's rating has the potential to impact its competitors. Don't forget to check out updates to our appeals page. www.phrfchesbay.org/page/ratings/appealstatus.

Our two handicapping boards are holding our annual Joint Handicappers meeting where they have a chance to work face-to-face on the current rating, handicapping, documentation and appeal items of interest. We will have updates for you in the next newsletter.

Roger Coney, our Northern Bay VP, is working on updates to our website to facilitate handicapping activities, to better document our handicapping system and to make our information easier to access and analyze.

At the annual CBYRA schedule collaboration meeting in January, all of the race organizers who participated are still very interested in having PHRF fleet starts. We have the largest fleet in the bay and we need to work together to bring more of our boats to the starting line of these events. Please contact our delegates and executive committee members and help us come up with ways to improve participation in this season's race events.

Thank you for your membership and support of PHRF of the Chesapeake.

Marc