Marionette - 1st, 75th Anniversary Off Soundings Club Spring Series

This is a 6" diameter, 2 " thick, engraved glass disc with a flat on the bottom so you can stand it on your desk and look at it - constantly.

The Off Soundings Club (OSC) is a 500 member club without any land based facilities and has for 75 years run 2, 2 race off shore regattas. There is a Springs Series in early June out to Block Island on day one, and a race around Block Island on day 2. In September there is a Fall Series usually out to Shelter Island, NY, and then on day 2 a race out in Gardiners Bay. In recent years there have been 125-150 boats racing in 10-12 classes, mostly PHRF.

After racing each day there is a traditional party under 'the tent' with the Bourbon, Scotch, Gin and Vodka barrels identified only by their signal flags. OSC racing crews occasionally have problems identifying the RC signals but B, S and V signals are never missed. After allowing the prescribed marinating period, the club's officers, in their blue blazers, read the results to 700-800+ assembled racing crews.

The Spring Series start is usually off Watch Hill, RI and, while the Race Committee takes due note of the wind conditions and forecast, most importantly, they recognize the importance of Rule #1- getting the fleet to Block Is in time for the party. The Committee boat is Henry DuPont's magnificant Nor'easter, a 60' William Hand classic motorsailer, pictured here on a blustery rainy race day in 2003.

Race 1 this year had light breezes of 5-10 knots right on the nose for the course to the Great Salt Pond entrance to Block Is. The normally 18-20 mile course was set assuming the breeze would veer to the southwest and west. The breeze stayed light and the race was ultimately shortened in conformance with Rule #1 above. The race was essentially a long beat to Block. Marionette worked her way up the middle of the course to win on corrected time by nearly 7 minutes.

On day 2 the breeze was also light, maybe bit stronger. The course was counterclockwise around the island. Marionette, being a Dolphin, was able to stay in close to the bluffs (and the thinner water) where the breeze was better. The downwind portion on the long southern side of the island featured many gibes to get to, and stay in, better breeze. Marionette's big downwind spinnaker was a killer. Some bigger boats, jealous of the better breeze, and having a lot more draft than a Dolphin, came inside with us - several coming into abrupt contact with the many boulders lurking beneath the surface in this area. Marionette's winning margin was just over 5 minutes.

It must be mentioned here that, in this race with all 12 classes racing the same course, Marionette's was one of only 3 boats to finish under 4 hours, and her corrected time of 3:50.55 was the best corrected time for the entire 112 boat fleet Complete results can be seen by clicking here.

Now for a few words on handicaps....You might want to fix yourself a strong drink here. And some might want to start with a visit to US Sailing's website on PHRF. Click here to go to it - http://www.ussailing.org/phrf/what_is_phrf.asp

The eastern CT PHRF handicap for Marionette racing in a spinnaker class is 252. You can see a copy of her racing certificate by clicking here. It ordinarily would be 261 but she carries a 6 sec penalty for her outboard motor (stored below when racing) and a 3 second penalty for her 170% light air genoa.

The Off Soundings Club takes this basic rating and applies additional factors - interesting, and important to Dolphins. The smallest boat that is allowed to race must be 24' LOA, and the highest PHRF handicap allowed is 300. There are not many of us left in this rarified atmosphere as most boats racing now are below 200. OSC races tend to be 18-20 miles in length, often lasting 4-5 hours. Since long or light wind races tend to disadvantaged older, 'slower' designs like Dolphins when using Time on Distance PHRF handicaps, OSC converts the handicaps to Time on Time.

This conversion formula looks complicated but really is not. A Time Correction Factor (TCF) is developed based on the base PHRF handicap - which is a seconds per mile handicap - and that factor is applied to each boats elapsed time giving a corrected time

Corrected time = elapsed time x TCF

The formula for calculating TCF is

TCF = 600/(480 + HCP*)

where a PHRF handicap (HCP) of 120 (480 + 120) would yield a TCF of 1.

* In addition, OSC applies a penalty to the PHRF handicap that each yacht carries based upon her top 3 finish results in the prior 3 regattas. For example, Marionette, because she won the Spring Series, will carry a 15% (of her PHRF handicap - .15 x 252 = 37.8) in the next series. Assuming she did not place in the top 3 positions in the next 3 regattas, this penalty would reduce to 10%, then 5%, being removed completely after the 3rd regatta. Penalties may accumulate to a maximum of 45%. The purpose of this special OSC penalty system is to keep the racing fun and competitive. For more details on the OSC penalty system click here.

So (another drink?), the Time Correction Factor (TCF) for Marionette for the 2008 Spring Series was .8197 applied to her elapsed time.

Marionette's TCF = 600/(480 + 252) = .8197

These are the results of Races 1 and 2.

Race 1, Friday, June 13, 2008 - Watch Hill to Block Island

Race 2, Saturday, June 14, 2006 - Around the Island Race

When time and fortitude permit, an exhaustive analysis of race results with and without OSC penalties, and under both Time on Distance and Time on Time handicap methods will be attempted. Another drink?

Click here to go back to Marionette

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June 18, 2009 - Marionette, based on her performance at this regatta placed 2nd in the Sparkman & Stephens Association's 2008 Global Challege Trophy Award. For more on this click here