Good points, although the lack of commonality between boats in our fleet is precisely why we should seriously consider going to ORC for the more “serious” (although is it really? 
) VARC racing.
Because ORC’s three-number rating system (six numbers, really, since they’re also split for course types) accounts for exactly the type of dissimilarities between boats that you’re referring to. Not perfectly, perhaps, but a whole lot better than with a semi-subjective one-number system.
Re: “A 3-6 second change also doesn’t really impact series (or long-distance) race results much, so PHRF is probably good enough to make racing interesting.”
I’d argue the opposite in regards to long-distance races. A 3- to 6-second rating error won’t have much effect on the results of a typical round-the-buoys race because over the course of a 45-minute two-lap race, the starts, roundings and boathandling have a much greater impact on the results than any fine-grain rating details have.
But on a simple 30 nm there-and-back distance race, for two boats that start within a few seconds of each other, trim to equivalent levels of efficiency, and go the same way on the course (i.e. face the same conditions and tides), a 3-second ratings discrepancy keeps clocking away over the entirety of the race, giving the advantaged boat a 90-second cushion to play with. Unless they do something fairly catastrophically stupid there’s simply not enough time to be gained/lost on the single start and rounding for the disadvantaged boat to ever make up that 90 seconds. The disadvantaged boat can only hope the advantaged boat gets complacent and finds a nice localized wind hole to park in.
BTW, speaking of ORC, the Bayview Yacht Club and Chicago Yacht Club have both switched to ORC for their 2021 Mackinac races: http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?m=1109014349704&ca=95465432-a3d8-4d5a-aeb9-2e67c68bc516
If the move proves successful, you can bet local big-ticket races like Swiftsure, VI360 and Southern Straits will be paying attention.
In Div 3 we’ve just today been asked to vote for either ORC or PHRF for the next VARC season. If the fleet review was done and the numbers adjusted I think I would be fine with PHRF. I like the simplicity of one number, but maybe more numbers make ORC fairer. Hard for me to choose in the absence of the review. Eeny meeny miney moe?
I wouldn’t hold your breath on the PHRF review – it has been over a year since it was orignally supposed to have been released and there’s been exactly zero communication of any sort coming from the PHRF Committee during that time.
A big part of PHRF’s problem, certainly locally, is that the process simply can’t move quickly enough to keep up with the fleet. So outlier boats come in, race for three or four years, and either clean up and move on to a bigger boat (if they had a favourable rating) or give up and drop out (if they had a punitive rating). Then a year later, when it doesn’t matter anymore and there are new, different outlier boats, PHRF finally gets around to fixing the ratings for the ones that are long gone.
Meanwhile, as a matter of course, ORC annually refines its VPP and updates its already very accurate ratings. There’s a reason major race organizers are moving towards ORC.
I’m not seeing the evidence of outlier boats or maybe I’m misunderstanding your definition. Seems like mostly production boats winning in Div 3 over the last few years.
If there’s an inability to do the fleet review that was announced, then that would be an important piece of info to know before voting on a system for next year.
Just because a boat is a production boat, doesn’t mean its PHRF rating is correct. Especially when first entering PHRF-BC, where the ratings have historically been offset compared to elsewhere (and still are to some extent). We’ve had a few boats come in over the years with questionable ratings in both directions. It seems to always take at least three years to finally get an adjustment made, and that’s forever in the racing scene. As for non-production, there was a highly turboed boat with a completely different keel racing for a number of years. It’s since sold out of the fleet, but it’s one of the boats now on the review list. Which seems a little late.
I don’t know if there’s an actual inability, but it sure doesn’t seem like there’s much motivation or urgency.
My understanding is that the committee is looking at it now, and that @Wraith may even have some preliminary numbers. The issue seems to be that Vancouver has many boats in the 100-140 band, and the island(s) has/have many boats in the 140-175 band, so they split the work. The problem is that when they came back together, the numbers didn’t match up well, so they’re now trying to square the circle.
All of that said, I think PHRF-BC could definitely do a better job communicating; we’re all adults (with boats), and we can sustain a civil conversation (or else hoof it). I appreciate that the committee is made up of volunteers with limited time, and would be happy to help with the communications aspect if they’d like.
But because it has taken them so very long, we’re now in the position where we’re voting on a pig in a poke. Will they get the review right, or will it be a dog’s breakfast of a disaster?
And even if they get it mostly right, there will be those who feel this boat or that boat got treated favourably/unfavourably, and so there will be the barroom kvetching and second-guessing.
Which is why my preference is for ORC: Solid science-based ratings, that have proven to create good, tight competitive racing, and no subjectively or associated barroom bitching.
Unless of course that’s one of the things we actually enjoy about PHRF? 
If I ever move up to a bigger boat I’m calling it The Outlier.
Got my PHRF Cert renewal notice today. Which gave me a good laugh.
The VARC website now has the 2021 NOR up too.
PHRF-BC has now posted a letter clarifying the committee’s position on ratings appeals during the pandemic. Essentially the letter explains that the smaller shorthanded fleets and informal race formats taking place under Covid do not generate suitably reliable performance data on which to base appeals, so PHRF-BC will not be holding an appeals meeting this spring.
The letter doesn’t address the mythical Div 3 review, which was well underway before Covid broke loose.
https://bcsailing.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/January-2021-PHRF-letter.pdf
The Div 3 review is now out.
See https://bcsailing.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/100-150-review-For-distribution-Mar-14-003-1.pdf
So Dash 34-1 O base rating went from 107 to 99?
Try 114 to 99… 
I guess we have been plunked into Div. 2 now with no chance to appeal until the Fall
My boat’s been measured for ORC and just awaiting the certificate. With the ORC cert we could race Div2. For PHRF I’m planning to retire the #1 Genoa for a 3 second credit to be able to race Div3. Try both systems and see.
Sounds like a sane approach. Once you’ve got your official ORC cert, you can also generate a test cert of your PHRF config (with #2 as biggest headsail), and then when you’re racing in PHRF we can use that to do a little informal Div 3 ORC-vs-PHRF comparison scoring on the side for those boats with ORC certs.
If we get enough Div 3 boats measured into ORC (at least three or four, say), I’ll even pony up the bucks for a Div 3 ORC trophy of some sort.
