Advertising via sail numbers? 55

it's worth qualifying that point of view though.... in a race designed to be just a bit of fun to bring some disparate classes together on the same start line (or finish line in a pursuit!) for a celebration of sailing;much like the ethos of the John Merricks Charity Pursuit Race (aka the Tiger Trophy), does it really matter that there is a level of inaccuracy in it?  If it is glaringly obvious, then of course the local RO can adjust, which is exactly what the Great Lakes scheme does in fact; bringing the system back to within levels of acceptable deviation for the majority of participants.

The problems occur when people take the handicap racing too seriously.  The system is not geared to cope with the level of scrutiny applied by such people- the statistics and real-world qualitative feedback is testament to that.  Two winners under the internet witch-hunt in as many years, constant criticism of 'bandits', folks calling for boats to be declared 'out of class' when their own manufacturer AND class association have granted temporary approval to a pending minor change.  

I've been critical of PY myself, but on reflection that's because I was taking it way to seriously at the time- probably because I was sailing a new class with limited class racing and I looked to the handicap events and handicap racing in my club to provide a similar 'level playing field' to class racing.  I was missing the point of the PY system... it could never do that, it doesn't pretend to do that; but it does bring its own merits in other ways and 100 boats out in the middle of silly sh*tty cold season.... well, that's good as long as people approach it with the right attitude.   It's also quite ironic that at the time of the Merlin kerfuffle I was also supporting the 'retire'/hard line' rules approach... unwittingly sailing myself, out of class, with tapered sheets!

The purpose of PY is bring people together, but this hardline approach is driving us apart.....