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Performance Handicap Racing Fleet
Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF) is a handicapping system used for yacht racing in North America. It allows dissimilar classes of sailboats to be raced against each other. The aim is to cancel out the inherent advantages and disadvantages of each class of boats, so that results reflect crew skill rather than equipment superiority. PHRF is used mainly for larger sailboats (i.e., 7 meters and above). For dinghy racing, the Portsmouth yardstick handicapping system is more likely to be used. The handicap number assigned to a class of yachts is based on the yacht's speed relative to a theoretical yacht with a rating of 0. A yacht's handicap, or rating, is the number of seconds per mile traveled that the yacht in question should be behind the theoretical yacht. Most boats have a positive PHRF rating, but some very fast boats have a negative PHRF rating. If Boat A has a PHRF rating of 15 and Boat B has a rating of 30 and they compete on a 1 mile course, Boat A should finish a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Handicap (sailing)
Handicap forms for sailing vessels in Yacht racing, sailing races have varied throughout history, and they also vary by country, and by sailing organisation. Sailing handicap standards exist internationally, nationally, and within individual sailing clubs. Typically sailing vessel classes are defined by measurement rules, which categorise vessels accordingly into classes of vessels, and vessels compete within their class. Handicapping allows vessels to compete across classes, and also allows vessels and crews to compete based on performance and equipment on an equal basis, by adjusting the race outcome data, to declare a ''handicap'' (adjusted) winner as distinct from a ''line honours'' (first over the finish line) winner. For some national, international, and other yacht racing events, rules such as those of the International Racing Certificate known as the International Measurement System (IMS) or the Sportsboat rule (SBR) may be specified. Others exist in different countries. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yacht Racing
Yacht racing is a Sailing (sport), sailing sport involving sailing yachts and larger sailboats, as distinguished from dinghy racing, which involves open boats. It is composed of multiple yachts, in direct competition, racing around a course marked by buoys or other fixed navigational devices or racing longer distances across open water from point-to-point. It can involve a series of races with buoy racing or multiple legs when point-to-point racing. History Yachting, that is, recreational boating, is very old, as exemplified in the ancient poem Catullus 4: The yacht you see there, friends, says that she's been The fastest piece of timber ever seen; She swears that once she could have overhauled All rival boats, whether the challenge called For racing under canvas or with oars. (trans. James Michie) "Yacht" is referred to as deriving from either Norwegian ("jagt"), Middle Low German ("jaght") or from the Dutch word jacht, which means "a swift light vessel of war, commerce or p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sailboats
A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture. Types Although sailboat terminology has varied across history, many terms have specific meanings in the context of modern yachting. A great number of sailboat-types may be distinguished by size, hull configuration, keel type, purpose, number and configuration of masts, and sail plan. Popular monohull designs include: Cutter The cutter is similar to a sloop with a single mast and mainsail, but generally carries the mast further aft to allow for a jib and staysail to be attached to the head stay and inner forestay, respectively. Once a common racing configuration, today it gives versatility to cruising boats, especially in allowing a small staysail to be flown from the inner stay in high winds. Catboat A catboat has a single mast mounted far forward and does not ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinghy Racing
Dinghy racing is a competitive sport using dinghies, which are small boats which may be rowboats, have an outboard motor, or be sailing dinghies. Dinghy racing has affected aspects of the modern sailing dinghy, including hull design, sail materials and sailplan, and techniques such as planing and trapezing. Organization of competitive dinghy sailing Dinghy racing comes under the auspices of World Sailing. Organisations such as the Royal Yachting Association, National School Sailing Association (UK) and Canadian Yachting Association (Canada) organise and regulate the sport at a national level. Sailing dinghies compete on an international, national, state, association, club and class basis, using the ISAF International Racing Rules of Sailing, which are revised every four years. There are several courses used, such as the Olympic triangle. The International Association for Disabled Sailing (IFDS)] is the body authorized by ISAF to be responsible for disabled sailing worldwide. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portsmouth Yardstick
The Portsmouth Yardstick (PY) or Portsmouth handicap scheme is a term used for a number of related systems of empirical handicapping used primarily in small sailboat racing. The handicap is applied to the time taken to sail any course, and the handicaps can be used with widely differing types of sailboats. Portsmouth Numbers are updated with data from race results, normally annually. The various schemes are not directly linked, and ratings for the same class can and often do vary in the different schemes. The most prominent Portsmouth Yardstick systems are probably those administered in the United States by the Portsmouth Numbers Committee, in the United Kingdom by the Royal Yachting Association ( RYA) and in Australia by Victoria Yachting. History The original UK Portsmouth Yardstick was developed by Stanley Milledge, who was in charge of handicapping racing at the '' Langstone Sailing Club'' in 1947 using the ''Island One'' design as the scratch boat (having a value 100). In 195 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Measurement System
The International Measurement System (IMS) is a system of handicapping sailboats for the purpose of racing that replaced the earlier International Offshore Rule (IOR) system in the early 1990s. It is managed by the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC). In the sailing world it is usually referred to simply as 'IMS'. Synopsis IMS was the first yacht racing rule developed around the central idea of a Velocity prediction program (VPP). The VPP was a complex computer program that integrated continuous hullform information in order to predict a given boat's speed potential in a given wind velocity. Details on the VPP were openly available to the yachting community, in contrast to the earlier IOR system. Designers and boat owners much preferred this as they were able to design new yachts to maximise performance under the rule with a degree of certainty they had not enjoyed under the IOR rule. IMS is generally believed to have made significant leaps of progress forward from the IOR rule it di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foresail
A foresail is one of a few different types of sail set on the foremost mast (''foremast'') of a sailing vessel: * A fore-and-aft sail set on the foremast of a schooner or similar vessel. * The lowest square sail on the foremast of a full-rigged ship or other vessel which is square-rigged. Sails set forward of the mainmast, such as jibs and staysails, are sometimes referred to as foresails, although "headsails" is a more common term, headsail can also specifically refer to the sail on a forestay that connects directly to the head of the mast. History Foresails set on foremasts between midships and bow were the first type of sail to appear after the mainsail which had been the sole standard rig on sailing vessels for millennia, down to classical antiquity. The earliest foresail, or two-masted ship, has been identified on an Etruscan pyxis from Caere, Italy, dating to the mid-7th century BC: a warship with a furled mainsail is engaging an enemy vessel, deploying a foresai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spinnaker
A spinnaker is a sail designed specifically for sailing off the wind on courses between a reach (wind at 90° to the course) to downwind (course in the same direction as the wind). Spinnakers are constructed of lightweight fabric, usually nylon, and are often brightly colored. They may be designed to perform best as either a reaching or a running spinnaker, by the shaping of the panels and seams. They are attached at only three points and said to be ''flown''. Nomenclature Informal names for a spinnaker are ''kite'' or ''chute'' (owing to their resemblance to a parachute in both construction and appearance). Boats may have more than one spinnaker, differentiated by a letter to indicate symmetric (S) or asymmetric (A) and a number to indicate size (with higher numbers indicating smaller size), e.g. ''A1'' would be a large asymmetric sail and ''S3'' would be a smaller symmetric sail. Operation A spinnaker is used for sailing with the direction of the wind. Symmetrical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Keel
The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in British and American shipbuilding traditions the construction is dated from this event. Etymology The word "keel" comes from Old English , Old Norse , = "ship" or "keel". It has the distinction of being regarded by some scholars as the first word in the English language recorded in writing, having been recorded by Gildas in his 6th century Latin work ''De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae'', under the spelling ''cyulae'' (he was referring to the three ships that the Saxons first arrived in). is the Latin word for "keel" and is the origin of the term careen (to clean a keel and the hull in general, often by rolling the ship on its side). An example of this use is Careening Cove, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, where careening was carried out ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Propeller
A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon a working fluid such as water or air. Propellers are used to pump fluid through a pipe or duct, or to create thrust to propel a boat through water or an aircraft through air. The blades are specially shaped so that their rotational motion through the fluid causes a pressure difference between the two surfaces of the blade by Bernoulli's principle which exerts force on the fluid. Most marine propellers are screw propellers with helical blades rotating on a propeller shaft (ship), propeller shaft with an approximately horizontal axis. History Early developments The principle employed in using a screw propeller is derived from sculling. In sculling, a single blade is moved through an arc, from side to side taking care to keep presenting the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mainsail
A mainsail is a sail rigged on the main mast of a sailing vessel. * On a square rigged vessel, it is the lowest and largest sail on the main mast. * On a fore-and-aft rigged vessel, it is the sail rigged aft of the main mast. The sail's foot is normally attached to a boom. (In extremely heavy weather, the mainsail may be lowered, and a much smaller trysail hoisted in its place). Historical fore-and-aft rigs used a four-sided gaff rigged mainsail, sometimes setting a gaff topsail above it. Whereas once the mainsail was typically the largest sail, today the mainsail may be smaller than the jib or genoa; Prout catamarans typically have a mainmast stepped further aft than in a standard sloop, so that the mainsail is much smaller than the foresail. Bermuda rig The modern Bermuda rig uses a triangular mainsail aft of the mast, closely coordinated with a jib for sailing upwind. A large overlapping jib or genoa is often larger than the mainsail. In downwind conditions (with t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yacht
A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasure vessel is likely to be at least in length and may have been judged to have good aesthetic qualities. The Commercial Yacht Code classifies yachts and over as . Such yachts typically require a hired crew and have higher construction standards. Further classifications for large yachts are: —carrying no more than 12 passengers, —solely for the pleasure of the owner and guests, or by flag, the country under which it is registered. A superyacht (sometimes ) generally refers to any yacht (sail or power) longer than . Racing yachts are designed to emphasize performance over comfort. Charter yachts are run as a business for profit. As of 2020 there were more than 15,000 yachts of sufficient size to require a professional crew. Etymology ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
