As I explained to Louis, there was an initiative to review ORR-Ez ratings relative to US PHRF. While US PHRF is not considered to be the standard of right or wrong, the theory is that a large discrepancy might indicate a potential problem with the ORR-Ez ratings.

To this end, each region produced a comparison of their ORR-Ez-rated boats with US PHRF. In the GYA, we had a head-start on this with the ORA-1 ratings that Tom Beery commissioned in 2022.

Indeed, of all the ORR-Ez boats in the GYA, the Easterly 30 was rated the very slowest relative to its US PHRF rating, by a wide margin. Thus, the Easterly - notably not a mainstream design - was reviewed by the technical committee. As you have noted, the digital hull file - or "offsets file" - was created from photos and profiles as opposed to a reliable set of designer/builder drawings. It was determined that this was the likely source of the discrepancy so adjustments were made.

I agree that the adjustment seems a bit excessive. This process is still in development and I will be offering appropriate feedback.

It is the goal of ORR-Ez to be as accurate as possible and many tools are used to pursue this goal. Remember that ORR-Ez is an unmeasured system, so there are practical limits to the application of purely scientific analysis. (I.e., beware of "garbage-in, garbage-out")

I already apologized to Louis for not being more proactive about notifying him of the changes. As I said, this is a work in progress.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled conspiracy theories!

Kett