I recently approached my Sailing Secretary to plead for him to adjust the PY number that I was sailing with (currently at 1017 for a Proctor Mk XII Merlin!!) I forwarded the table that is on this website and have had advice previously to push for a "vintage" PY number. I asked for a handicap of 1017 + 60 and the Sailing Sec at LTSC has come back and asked the following.

"Do the numbers below assume modern masts/sails are used, just trying to understand better how they arrived at the numbers as back-up for discussions on the subject."

Can anyone shed some light on what the true PY number should be for a Mk XII (Sail Number 1301) and what proviso's (use of spinni, size of spinni, etc) should be taken into account when assigning the number.

As I said to the Sailing Sec, I'm no great sailor and don’t ever expect to compete but it would be nice to take the “boat” factor out of the equation so that I’m the one getting the blame for coming last in a race. I just want to be starting off from a level playing field.

Many thanks

Stuart

You can tell him these PY adjustments were arrived at in conjuction with an official from the RYA yardstick/measurement board.

I think the general line is that the hulls are responsible for the major part of speed differences, and unless someone has full carbon rig and kevlar sails, the adjustments the MROA suggests are unlikely to give a major advantage to the older boat sailor.

Forfar are generous enough to allow 10 extra points for no spinnaker!!  It makes Gannet just competitive.

As far as i can tell, if your sailing sec is using the Portsmouth Scheme correctly, then the Merlin has a 'RN' status (2008 list) which means the club should be adjusting the hadicaps proactively.  See the attached document.  

Of course that is rather complex, and perhaps adopting the class approved numbers might be easier on the admin.