Not to bore the OD guys to tears with all of this, but one thing to be cognizant of is the extent to which the OD rating in a PHRF region may be helping you. Case in point: I went to PHRF Chesapeake last season with a mast-head spin with an SL of 32.5 and kept the pole as-is (9.83'). They came back with a 12-sec hit for a new rating of 138. That means that the "base rating" is 150, right? Who knows. Our OD rating is 144, but if I take all of the OD measurements and assess PHRF penalties based upon the formulas in the Green Book, it comes out to a 9-sec penalty. So why isn't our OD rating 141? Possibly, it's the result of the lobbying that Daryl Grebb did when he had Midnight Express on the Bay. Or (and this is probably the case), the base rating they started assesing penalties for the masthead from was 3-seconds low.

In any case, the personality of your PHRF committee has a lot to do with it. Here, the general consensus is that what the formulas indicate is irrelevant (they're VERY careful to indicate that the formulas are only "guidelines"), if you make a change from a ODR, you are percieved to be gaming the system and you can count on an extra 3-second hit nested into the base rating just for asking. This is, in my mind, the core problem with PHRF - it's a system based upon "percieved performance," not measurement...except when you want to change something. Then the whole thing falls to pieces.

:: Dependent on what your predominant racing conditions are
:: and who you are racing against, you have to take care in
:: deciding what to do about your spinnaker. If your
:: competitors are PHRF maximized, you may have to maximize
:: your sails to be competitive and/or appeal to your local
:: PHRF committee. I've done both, and have had relative
:: success in both.
::
:: For sail maximization, you have to know your numbers
:: (PHRF formulas) exactly for full optimization. For PHRF
:: committees, don't expect much, because racing in local
:: regions may be politically driven, as Handicappers may
:: be people you race your boat against. These individuals
:: typically do not like to lose, so you may get something,
:: but not a whole lot. You have to do your homework to
:: back up your appeal, but the outcome is based solely on
:: where they want you, not where you should be.
::
:: I took it slow on my optimization as I wanted to see how
:: the boat performed before commiting to change. My main
:: and genoa were fine at Code 5, but I went to a Code 8
:: (or -9) for my masthead spinnaker and shortened pole. If
:: I left my Class pole at 9.83 with a masthead, I would
:: have taken a -15 or -18 PHRF penalty.
::
:: I currently have a 32.0 LLS with a 9.58 pole which is
:: workable with a -9 hit. I'm now experimenting with a
:: 34.0 LLS with a 9.0 pole also with a -9 hit. This feels
:: like more power in any wind over 5 kts and probably what
:: I'll go to here.
::
:: Even if you do nothing and use a Class set-up you'll
:: probably win a race here and there, as I did, it's just
:: being optimized, you win more races. I've taken this
:: route because other owners with Laser 28s and Tartan 10s
:: told me when I first started sailing a few years ago
:: that my Express would never be able to beat them.
::
:: They don't say that any more. PHRF is PHRF and not OD.
:: It's really unfortunate that I have the only e27 here.
:: The flip side is that my boat with inexperienced crew
:: and old sails still wins.
::
:: I'm sure you'll love your boat. Cheers!