Hoo-boy! There's a LOT of misinformation here!

Driving is much more complex than walking, but I sure see a lot of cars on the road!

PHRF hasn't been anywhere close to fair for... well, ever. It's just that everyone's perception adapted to it. It's like Stockholm Syndrome. Stan Honey, one of the most respected minds in sailing, may have said it best about PHRF vs. VPP-based ratings, "PHRF is great for beer-can racing, but it should never be used for serious competition." As I type this, Stan is sailing his Cal 40 in the Newport-Bermuda Race, which uses ORR Performance Curve Scoring - as it has for over 20 years!

PHRF was a lot more "fair" back in the 70s & 80s because the boats were all very similar in design then. Think IOR & IMS. Their polar diagrams looked like scaled copies of one another, kinda perfect for PHRF. However, as technology has advanced and boat designs have become more diverse, PHRF has been unable to keep up. Now, polar diagrams for different boats often have dramatically different shapes and PHRF can't deal with that. Enter VPP-based ratings!

Be careful not to misrepresent the point about "configuring your boat for ORR-Ez". You cannot game the system; the VPP rates whatever you bring. PHRF, however, is type-forming; it effectively requires every boat to have a 155% Genoa, whether your boat was designed for it or not. VPP ratings allow you to configure your boat how YOU want it, not how the rule thinks it should be. That's kind of a new concept.

I agree that no handicap system is 100% "fair", if by fair you mean perfectly accurate. I think everyone realizes that. But VPP-driven systems are at least making an attempt at the best possible approach.

On the whole, I think our experience with ORR-Ez has been very successful. I encourage you to talk with Benz who has been a huge proponent of ORR-Ez and instrumental in several improvements to our local implementation. You are correct that there are some critical demands made on the RC (nothing comes for free!), but these are not particularly difficult to accomplish. And, like anything else, there is a learning process.

I understand that not everyone will be on-board with ORR-Ez and that's fine. But I hate to see misinformation and cynicism... wait a minute, what am I saying, this is the Internet!!!

Cheers,
Kett