Many Vipers find that one-design racing is not always available. Rather than let their Viper sit on the hard all the time, they have sailed in PHRF regattas racing on a handicap basis. Class Governor Peter Beardsley had his first taste of Viper PHRF this summer and shared the following:

For some one-design sailors, PHRF may be as ugly an acronym as COVID, and, in Summer 2020, the terms were synonymous for Viper sailors. Rachel and I relocated to Shelter Island, NY, where, other than local stalwart Rich Prieto on Viper 124, there was no one-design sailing in Vipers. We still wanted to sail our Viper and, with two thirds of a quaranteam in place, opted for as much PHRF racing as our schedule would allow. We managed close to 20 days in the boat as a result.

The competition varied wildly. On Wednesday nights, it was a group of well-sailed J/109s, a J/100, Henderson 30, J/105 and C&C 35 out of Sag Harbor where the Viper was the second slowest boat on handicap. On weekends in Peconic Bay, there would be J/100s and J/105s all the way down to J/22s in the same division, with a bunch of J/80s mixed in. For holiday events out of Shelter Island YC, some of the same crowd plus a J/88, J/70s, and J/92s. Often the courses were government mark races, sometimes windward leeward, and sometimes pursuit-style. Here are some lessons learned about PHRF racing in a Viper:

1. If the pin is very favored, try hard to win it. Vipers are lighter and more maneuverable than the competition and can sail down speed toward the pin when everyone else is trying to come with a head of steam. Vipers can accelerate faster than bigger boats, and most panicked big boat bowmen will eventually waive the driver off for fear of cutting the down speed Viper in half. Eventually the fleet learns to leave you alone at the pin when it is favored by 20 degrees or more. At that point, if you're able to tack and cross the fleet, do so quickly before the bad air comes - it's a narrow window of opportunity if you're sailing against faster competition with larger sail plans. If you can't tack and cross, just wait for your opportunity to develop or a chance to duck cleanly if you want to get onto port.

2. For all other starts, make sure you're able to start to weather of the fleet. In PHRF, almost every other boat will have a larger sail plan than you, and if they are as fast or faster upwind (which they often will be in 10+ knots), then you're going to get rolled and lose your lane. If you want to continue to sail in your preferred direction for as long as possible, it's all about keeping clear air. You'll usually be able to do that if you're to weather of the fastest boats. Just make sure to leave a big enough gap since in bigger breeze, boats with heavier keels often outpoint a Viper.

3. Sail your own race. A Viper will usually give up a lot of waterline length and will struggle to keep clear air around taller masts, but can make a lot of gains downwind. Stay free of other boats as much as possible while still staying in phase. If you're not the scratch boat, it isn't easy to be the first one to the puff or the shift upwind; but if you can be close enough, the gains will come downwind.

4. To be good in PHRF, it helps to sail one-design when you can. This may sound counterintuitive, but assuming a Viper's PHRF rating is based on its optimal performance, then you need to know what the optimal angles are, especially downwind. Sailing against as many Vipers as possible when you can, even if it means traveling every so often, will make you a lot faster when it comes time to sail PHRF in a mixed fleet.

5. No matter how good you are, in PHRF, some days you're the bug while other days you're the windshield. It doesn't matter if you have new sails, have optimized your crew weight to the expected conditions, and maybe brought a fourth person along for a windy day and are sailing at 650 pounds. If the racecourse involves a 10-mile beat in foul tide in 15+ knots and chop, you're going to get smoked by bigger boats. Ask me how I know. It won't matter how much downwind there is at that point if the upwind leg was that awful. However, if you're sailing a government mark race where there is a lot of reaching and you have planing conditions, you're often going to outperform your rating and drive the guys with larger, more expensive boats crazy. The times we outperformed our rating, it was usually either less than 6 knots or in planing conditions (11+ knots) when the J/70s and J/80s couldn't plane (sub 17 knots). Flat water helps. Anything in between these conditions you can still do well, but you definitely have to try harder and also hope a few things break your way.

PHRF, more so than other racing, forces you to keep it all in perspective and just enjoy the day. You can't control the weather, but you can control how much fun you're having.
Thanks, Peter, for the insight.

Editor's Note: one additional benefit of PHRF racing is that you have an engine on the stern to get you to/from the course on light days.

Some additional observations here after almost another year of PHRF under our belt:

- The biggest advantage a Viper has in PHRF is its maneuverability.  If you are in shifty conditions, you can tack on every shift (within reason) - bigger boats often will not tack in the same shifts on a short beat for fear of losing speed. 

- In conditions where a Viper is fully powered up and other boats (particularly underpowered J Boats) are not (i.e., 7-11 kts), you can point significantly higher than those boats upwind, and even though you're usually not planing downwind yet, the upwind gains can be significant.  And in light air when those guys are sticking to the water and having all of their crew to leeward, a Viper can foot and go fast and really demoralize the competition. 

- We definitely find ourselves sailing a bit more aggressively when racing PHRF.  I haven't decided yet if this is because we have to, or because we are able to.  It's a mix of both, but where I wouldn't always try to push the favored end of the line in a good one design fleet (in favor of just starting cleanly and having a lane), I find myself trying to win the favored end - I think a lot of that has to do with the improved maneuverability and also good skills having been honed in one design racing, plus big boats hanging back since they don't want to be over early.  Downwind we are passing everyone to windward when we have a choice - usually to keep clear air but in a Viper we don't always try to go for an aggressive roll - we often hang or gybe away, but with boats going very different speeds in a mixed fleet, just go over the top and keep the bus moving.