The following are brief summaries of key changes and updates we have made for 2012. You should review the Winter 2011 Mainsheet for complete information, or contact the PHRF office (757-865-0895) with any other questions.
At least two persons required for all PHRF races. Our PHRF Special Safety Regulation and Certificate of Compliance enacted a few years did not specifically include a requirement to ensure at least two persons be required on board during a race, as was the case in the old minimum equipment and accommodation standards. A change to sentence 5 of the Certification of Compliance form now requires that all PHRF races have boats with at least two persons on board.
Oversize mainsail girth dimensions required on application and renewal forms. PHRF is seeing more boats with oversize girth mainsails, and added mainsail girth dimensions to the application form in 2011. ONLY boats with oversize girth mainsails are required to fill out the information. Boats with oversize girth mainsails have always been required to report that to PHRF, but as obtaining the oversize girth dimensions has been difficult, we are adding the requirement to the renewal form for 2012. Our website now includes a mainsail girth measurement diagram to help determine girth measurements.
Updated Sport Boat rules and limitations. Our PHRF Sport Boat rules have been revised to keep pace with new technology and revisions in the way PHRF calculates sail area/displacement values due to increased use of oversize girth mainsails on many "sport boats". PHRF hopes to encourage member clubs and organizing authorities to offer more Sport Boat starts for their events and allow these unique boats a better and more fair racing environment.
Revised 2012 PHRF class splits. The PHRF class splits were adopted as in 2011 with one change to the Region IIIAW PHRF A1/A2 split, which was approved to change from 67 to 70. See the 2012 Class Splits online at this website.
Dual ratings (spinnaker and NS) are now provided for all spinnaker boats. The dual rating system of 2011 required boats wanting both spinnaker and NS ratings to specifically request both ratings at the time of application or renewal. In 2012, we will provided both ratings (spinnaker and NS) for all spinnaker boats (i.e., boats with spinnaker information on their valid certificates). Boats with no spinnaker information on their valid certificate will receive only a NS (non-spinnaker) rating, unless they owner adds the required spinnaker information (SS or AS dimensions, BS and/or SPL dimensions, and spinnaker hoist) at the time of application or renewal of the rating. There is no additional fee for having both ratings. See the instructions for completing the application (or renewal) form.