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The Classic Yacht Owners Association developed the CRF (Classic Rating Formula) as a measurement rating system to serve their racing schedule in the New England region. CYOA Technical Committee Chair Jim Taylor provides an update for the 2025 season:
At the end of each Classic season, the CYOA Technical Committee does an in-depth review of the year’s racing, with a primary focus on how accurately CRF ratings reflected real world performance over the full range of boat sizes and types and in a variety of conditions. Unfortunately, for the second year in a row, the weather gods failed to provide much wind for much of the season, so the amount of good data on which to base this analysis was limited.
A quite different measure of success might be that the number of certificates issued in 2024 increased by almost 8% from 2023 and was the third highest in the ‘CRF MkII’ era. Even more encouraging is the fact that the number of discrete boats entering an event was almost the same as the number of certificates issued. All of this suggests that owners felt that their CRF 2024 rating reflected reality well enough to give them a fair chance on the race course.
At the same time, despite all these positive developments, the cold hard facts are that accurately rating boats as diverse as those in the CYOA fleet is a tall order, so even if CRF 2024 did well, there is always room for improvement. Toward that end, the Technical Committee does plan on some changes to CRF 2024 that they hope will provide even better racing under CRF 2025.
In recent years it has been observed that boats in the Classic division have had a hard time competing in fleet scoring against their close cousins racing in Vintage. The reasons for this have been puzzling, however, as these two Divisions generally share quite similar characteristics; their overall hull proportions are similar, they both have full keels with attached rudders, and they share similar performance parameters.
To learn more, a Live Zoom Chat will be held on February 20 at 6:30pm ET.
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