PHRF is a handicapping system that uses the perceived speed potential of a yacht as the basis for a handicap. This handicap is used to determine a winner when different types of boat to race against each other, much like a golf handicap for a group of different skilled golfers.
In essence when sailing in a PHRF race your are actually racing against the clock. In order to know if you’re winning during a race you have to know everyone else’s PHRF rating and then measure the time difference between the boats at a known distance from the start line – not an easy task. All too often sailors have to wait at the Yacht Club until the Race Committee publishes the results in order to find out who won.
Version 0.1 of PHRFulator allows you to build a table of boats with different ratings and calculate the time between them at various distances from the start line. Using this table on the race course will allow you to know which boats are supposed to be ahead of you or behind you and by how much giving you a “live” ranking.
