# Spreadsheet of PHRF ratings



## vtsailguy (Aug 4, 2010)

I am starting to look around for boats, and thought I might start by using PHRF ratings to winnow the field a bit. I am looking for something in the 28-38' range that's a fast cruiser.

Anyhow, I am sure I saw a link one time to a sortable spreadsheet of PHRF's. All I can find are PDF's which can't be sorted easily.


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## jgeissinger (Feb 25, 2002)

phrfsocal.org has "ratings by manufacturer" as an option. Your local one may have some differences in any given boat, but there are a lot of boats here and it is a good source for comparisons. Take a look, it could be helpful. (It's in Excel)


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## sailingfool (Apr 17, 2000)

Here's the New England list PHRF New England - Handicapping - Base Handicaps


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## Maine Sail (Jan 6, 2003)

vtsailguy said:


> I am starting to look around for boats, and thought I might start by using PHRF ratings to winnow the field a bit. I am looking for something in the 28-38' range that's a fast cruiser.
> 
> Anyhow, I am sure I saw a link one time to a sortable spreadsheet of PHRF's. All I can find are PDF's which can't be sorted easily.


Friend of mine just bought a First 36.7 for less than 60K and is taking delivery today. Lots of good cruiser/racers out there. I was supposed to be delivering it with him but his plans changed at the last minute and I could not arrange my schedule to meet the changes...


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## MikeOReilly (Apr 12, 2010)

Here's another one courtesy of SailingJoy: SailingJoy.com - Resources - PHRF Ratings


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## vtsailguy (Aug 4, 2010)

Thanks for the links.

Hah, I have been looking at Firsts as well. the 36.7 is one I an interested in.


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## sailingfool (Apr 17, 2000)

I would read and carefully ponder https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cheeki-rafiki-accident-investigation-report-published before buying any recent First series boat if it shares the same keel attachment construction. IMHO the report is pretty damning.


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## vtsailguy (Aug 4, 2010)

sailingfool said:


> I would read and carefully ponder https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cheeki-rafiki-accident-investigation-report-published before buying any recent First series boat if it shares the same keel attachment construction. IMHO the report is pretty damning.


What years was that applicable to?


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## sailingfool (Apr 17, 2000)

vtsailguy said:


> What years was that applicable to?


Beats me, but if you were to read the report I suspect you can answer that and other predictable questions.


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## hellosailor (Apr 11, 2006)

vt-
Hopefully you're aware of how the PHRF ratings will not apply to "cruising" boats. Little things, i.e. a PHRF rating may silently be reflecting a normal crew of eight, with six sitting on the rail as live ballast. But it won't reflect on the thousand pounds of "stuff" a cruiser may have on board. Little things like that.

Its a place to start, but to be taken in context.


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## vtsailguy (Aug 4, 2010)

hellosailor said:


> vt-
> Hopefully you're aware of how the PHRF ratings will not apply to "cruising" boats. Little things, i.e. a PHRF rating may silently be reflecting a normal crew of eight, with six sitting on the rail as live ballast. But it won't reflect on the thousand pounds of "stuff" a cruiser may have on board. Little things like that.
> 
> Its a place to start, but to be taken in context.


Right, but I figure its a quick initial pass to separate out some of the racer/cruisers from the boats that are just core cruisers.


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## aloof (Dec 21, 2014)

More applicable to cruisers are the crossing times for some of the long distance rallys. Latitude38 each year publishes the Puddle Jump data. I have seen the ARC data somewhere else, too. 

The biggest takeaway is that it doesn't seem to make much difference...cat..racer/cruiser...chunderbeast...

Google it...


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## vtsailguy (Aug 4, 2010)

aloof said:


> More applicable to cruisers are the crossing times for some of the long distance rallys. Latitude38 each year publishes the Puddle Jump data. I have seen the ARC data somewhere else, too.
> 
> The biggest takeaway is that it doesn't seem to make much difference...cat..racer/cruiser...chunderbeast...
> 
> Google it...


Yes, I was just looking for a fast weekend lake sailor though. My Tartan 41 won second in class in the Caribbean 1500


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## JimsCAL (May 23, 2007)

I'm with vtsailguy in using PHRF ratings to get a sense of the relative performance of boats being considered. It's exactly what I did when shopping for a new boat five years ago. The big advantage is that there is a rating for just about any boat you are likely to come across. The disadvantage is that it's a single number which combines performance in a variety of conditions and points of sail. However if you combine it with numbers like the sail area/displacement ratio and displacement/length ratio, you can get a pretty good sense of the the light air versus heavy air performance.


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## travlin-easy (Dec 24, 2010)

My boat is so far down the list that I could cross the finish line the next day and with my handicap, still win the race.  On one sheet, it was 216. To me, at least, it makes no difference. I'm not in a hurry to get anywhere. 

Gary


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## caberg (Jul 26, 2012)

vtsailguy said:


> Thanks for the links.
> 
> Hah, I have been looking at Firsts as well. the 36.7 is one I an interested in.


I assume you have seen the one listed locally. 2002 Beneteau 36.7 Sail Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com


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## MikeOReilly (Apr 12, 2010)

travlineasy said:


> My boat is so far down the list that I could cross the finish line the next day and with my handicap, still win the race.  On one sheet, it was 216. To me, at least, it makes no difference. I'm not in a hurry to get anywhere.


Ha! Our boat is such a non-racer that it doesn't even appear on most PHRF lists. Although I see SailingJoy gives me a 168!

Bring it on Gary!:captain:


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## GeorgeB (Dec 30, 2004)

VT, The YRA of San Francisco has a pretty extensive list. But, as you discovered, it is designed for people to look up their specific boats and not a numerical sequence of ratings. Perhaps you can down load the file and convert it into a sortable format? I like our YRA PHRF ratings as they tend to stick to the regression formula pretty closely (for production boats). What I found useful is setting up the regression formula on an excel worksheet and create my own data base of boats that I’m interested in. Here is the formula

R' = 610-8.36*(SA/Disp^.333)+0.0000511*(SA^2)-55*(P/(J+E)) -30.8*(LWL^.5)-602*(DR^2/SA)

where SA (Sail Area)= .5*(I*J)+.5*(P*E)

The formula is relatively simple and the parameters are sail area, displacement, waterline length and draft. Increasing any one of those (other than displacement) and the rating goes down. Displacement is the killer in the formula. Two boats with the same LOA and the one with the lower Disp wins every time. You already know intuitively what boats are “fast” and what are “slow”. The formula will only reinforce your intuition.

The thing that the formula doesn’t take into account is how well the boat sails to its rating. Again, my experience (past National Measurer for the Catalina 34 fleet) is displacement rules over-all. I have found that companies like Johnson Composites have pretty accurate displacement figures in their published data while others may be taking their measurement off of a prototype boat which is much lighter than the production model. I get a much different number when I use the actual displacement (as measured by my local yard’s strain gauges) than the published data.

If you are looking for performance, refine your search to the “J’s” or to Beneteau’s First Series. And remember that displacement is everything.


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## hellosailor (Apr 11, 2006)

Depending on your PDF reader, you may be able to export to plain text, or Word, or even a comma delimited file, all of which could be imported into Excel, which should be able to parse the columns and let you sort by rating numbers in a flash.

Worth looking into.


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