The Northern California Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (NCPHRF) Committee is a Standing Committee of the Yacht Racing Association of San Francisco Bay. Its sole function is to determine the speed potential of monohull yachts racing in Northern California. If you are interested in getting a rating for a multihull, please visit the Bay Area Multihull Association. NCPHRF rating values will be in seconds per mile and assume a mixture of around-the-buoy and windward/leeward racing on San Francisco Bay and the surrounding area. The NCPHRF Committee recognizes that the handicaps will be used in a variety of races ranging from protected bays, estuaries and lakes, to open oceans. Therefore, the Committee has no responsibility for the seaworthiness or safety of yachts rated, but cites the US SAILING Fundamental Rule 4 part 1: “It shall be the sole responsibility of each yacht to decide whether or not to start or to continue to race.”

NCPHRF Rating Criteria

The NCPHRF Committee establishes performance ratings for sailboats that:

• have ballast and are single hulled,
• have a canoe body of nineteen feet LOA or greater,
• have minimum solid ballast of 400 pounds,
• have submitted a properly completed application and supporting information to enable the Committee to understand the shape, size, and speed-producing factors of the boat, and
• any custom/non-production boat must provide current measurement certificates (IMS, Americap II, MORC); and a VPP for the exact configuration in which she will be sailed.

The Committee may decline to handicap any yacht for which it feels unable to determine a potential speed. For boats new and or unfamiliar to the Committee, initial ratings will be considered provisional in nature, and may be reviewed and perhaps changed after one season or a series of races has transpired. It is a NCPHRF Committee policy that all documentation must be submitted to the YRA office prior to issuance of a rating. No ratings shall be given over the phone or without full documentation having been made available to the entire Committee. The Committee may invalidate a certificate at anytime, where cause is in evidence, such as incorrect dimensions or other than declared equipment is used. Due process will be exercised to allow the owner to be heard and corrections made if the owner in the view of the Committee provides justification. Further recourse resides in U S Sailing’s appeals process.

The NCPHRF committee only rates monohulls. If you are interested in ratings for multihulls please visit the Bay Area Multihull Association.