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Does it really matter? What you have to think about is what type of boats you are racing against. I raced J30s in one-design and in PHRF races in the Chesapeake. In the end a lot of times the guy who gets clean air soonest wins. From this perspective, in a PHRF situation, the fastest boat tends to win, even after the PHRF adjustment. Notice that the PHRF adjustment does not consider the boats against which you are racing. For example there is not a J35 PHRF against a J30 and a different PHRF for the J35 against the 105. PHRF only works (approximately) if you are racing against boats that are roughly of the same speed as your boat. If you are in a small community with shockingly different boats, PHRF ratings will not do the slow boats justice. Think of it this way: The PHRF concept would work if each of the boats went up the course independently, but does not consider the interactions between boats. Slow boats tend to get screwed by fast boats. That's why I liked one-design races. True talent rises up.
Just the same, great comments on mainsheet location and tiller wrt cruising. I didn't know about the J35C. Great discussion. I'm looking at a bigger boat but am concerned that it will make racing a joke if there aren't similar boats in the area. Not much yelling "starboard" if there's nobody around.
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