Ok I had missed Friction Loss's results for that. Wow that is impressive. Good read too.
http://www.pacificcup.org/2010/final-standingsYou could always throw in with another boat down near Vic and help them get out to some big races. Round the county is always up for crew. Tough to find crew that socially bent!
And as for none regular boats. I have no problem racing a J30 against a J30 with some being oversize kites and mains or even a different jib as long as they are rated for it. That is why if we do a fleet race we may need to have a phrf for some of the boats. I for one do not have the 163% as I am normally in good wind at Point Roberts so I run a 153% and a slightly small spin. This works well for me. But in a fleet I would suffer. Not that much though as Tony has all the big stuff and if I can pull in beside him in a 70 mile race and never bee more then 200 Yards away that tells me my sail choices are ok even for light air.
But I think we would have to draw a line at cretin modifications like rudders and Keels and even sprits. You would just not be comparing apples to apples any more. And your suspicion is correct there are some boats running non-legal rudders and Masthead kites and over roched mains and polished bottoms with modified keels. I keep track of my competitors and note the changes. If I thought that they were getting away with something I would notify PHRF NW or BC and challenge there rating. But I am also watching to see if they are onto something. And so far I have not seen a boat that just goes out and kills every one because they have the latest wiz bang thing or modified something. It always seems to be the best crew with the best skipper on a well-prepared boat that makes the right calls and no mistakes that walks away with the silver ware.
So I'm not too worried about the boats here.
Now as for the digging a hole in the water I agree with you in many ways. But we normally see 4-10kn breeze here in the NW during big race season and I am going to see how this works. Who knows I may be the first (first to have it looked at by Rodney Johnstone of
J/Boats) to put this sprit to work.
In the famous words of many people who have just had something very bad happen " Watch this!"
