To the Cruising Fleet Racers – Warren Frerichs has challenged that the published racing results for 2015 have been manipulated, biased, blasphemous, preposterous and unfair. Despite his tone, I do not take Warren’s accusations personally. The scoring rules and procedures are spelled out in the USSA Rules of Sailing, the 2015 NBC Sailing Instructions and Notices of Race, and the Cruising Fleet Scoring Rules of 2015. No scoring at Nyack is done alone, or in a vacuum. Besides the established Rules, there are checks and balances, especially at the end of the season. I believe, to the best of my ability, that all of the scoring rules were applied fairly and equitably this year. Again, I don’t take this personally. I invite everyone to calculate the results. Original Race Committee data are in a 3-ring binder next to the Race Committee locker, and the Cruising Fleet Scoring Rules and Sailing Instructions are published on the NBC web site. It would be very difficult to manipulate or change the data. Numbers are numbers, and the equations needed to convert elapsed time to corrected time with PHRF handicaps are well known. My job, as Scorer, is to make sure the mathematics are correct and transparent. Nothing is hidden; all scoring is aboveboard and available to anyone who wants to look at the data. This is not a personal issue. Some history might be in order to understand specific events that affected the scoring in 2015. As early as the Annual Fleet Meeting (February 28th), some realized that the Non-Spinnaker Division was in trouble with too many boats in Division 2, and not enough boats in Division 3. At the April 15 Racing Meeting, two weeks before the start of racing, Division 3 had only three boats registered (ten in Division 2) and it was proposed to change the PHRF level between the groups down to 185. That would move three boats from Division 2 into Division 3. However, all three skippers of those boats were adamantly opposed to changing divisions. What to do? The April 15th meeting decided to take a “wait and see” approach to the problem. By the Cruising Fleet meeting on June 15th, it was obvious that Division 3 could not field more than 4 boats on the line, and Division 2 had only six boats on the line. When the data were presented to John Michael, he decided as Fleet Captain to combine the two Divisions into one, and retroactively merge the scores based on corrected finishing times since both groups sailed the same course, albeit some 6 to 8 minutes apart. Looking at the data, no one boat had an advantage based on PHRF and the groups melded together nicely. John worked with Dave DeVries, chairman of the Race Committee, and the Sailing Instructions were changed to reflect only one start for the non-spinnaker group Division 2. The changed SIs took effect Wednesday Night, June 24th. Once again, there was nothing personal here. However, one must observe that Warren Frerichs was not at any of the Cruising Fleet meetings (Feb. 28, April 15, or June 15th), nor did he communicate any unhappiness with the new Sailing Instructions or merging of the two non-spinnaker divisions into one. The second piece of history involves the PHRF of my Tartan 30, Aeolus. And this is personal. When Jim and I started racing with just the two of us on the boat, we saw no need to claim a crew weight of 1,260 lbs. The minimum you can claim is 720 lbs for your PHRF rating. All PHRFs are public knowledge and every PHRF for every boat can be seen on the HRYRA web site. Over the years we have increased our number of crew, but the cockpit is too small for more than a crew of four. On August 19th , Warren mentioned our PHRF was only for a crew weight 700 lbs, and he joked we should have a scale on the patio to make checks. While this was said in gest, I had never thought of crew weight as an issue. I asked our crew their weight, came up with 690 lbs and decided we should change our PHRF to 1,000 lbs to be on the safe side. On August 24th our PHRF changed from 201 to 198, adding approximately 12 seconds to a one hour course. I believe Warren feels the lower PHRF should apply retroactively to the start of the season. We have recalculated the corrected times using the lower PHRF for Aeolus, and found there are no resulting changes in placement. The point I want to make here is that scoring is not a personal matter because the rules are well-documented and not changed on a whim. Good management is open, transparent and discusses the issues publically. This has been the case during 2015 and John Michael has, in my opinion, done a fine job listening and communicating necessary changes. I’m sorry Warren came to the party late, but I don’t take it personally and neither should you. Lee Luce Cruising Fleet Secretary From: Warren Frerichs [mailto:wcfrex@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2015 1:17 PM To: Lee Cc: Cruising Fleet; Cruising Fleet Racers Subject: Re: [Cruisingfleet] Cruising Fleet End of the Year party Lee, we cannot give out the racing awards till we have correct scoring for the season. I MUST contest the scoring, The entire season, not to mention the integrity of the program, is at stake. You cannot manipulate the data in excel so that you can win first place by a point, while taking points away from me. Lou, Dave, etc...And you can't score boats with no phrf, even if they got it after the race. And we all agreed that you needed your PHRF by the second race,,,not the 12th. You have to follow the rules. There is NO precedence ANYWHERE for a scoring scheme that combines fleets 3/4 of the way through the season, and then retroactively recasts the results for every race as if they had actually raced together. This is blasphemy, and completely preposterous. It is impossible lose a race to a boat you did not race against. The actual results, not the manipulated results, must stand. Warren Frerichs SV Journey 973-610-4231