Hello John.
I too race my BC23 (and other boats) under NHC.
I contacted the RYA to establish the base numbers for all the current Swallow Yachts. Here is their reply from Suzie Holland from the RYA. I trust they have now updated their national data base with these numbers which is available from the RYA website.
So you will be racing under a base number of 0.770 which is a pretty good handicap - bear in mind though that this is a starting number, it will change with your position in the fleet each week, ie the better you do, the more your handicap increases, conversely if you get back in when everyone else is in the bar, then your handicap will decrease.
The club running the races will have the right software when they produce the results which will show your change in NHC number for your next race - our club runs this system for Sunday racing every week.
QUOTE
Hi Andy,
Please find below NHC numbers for the Swallow Yachts, as requested:
BayCruiser 26 0.830
BayCruiser 23 0.815
BayRaider Expedition 0.770
BayRaider 20 0.770
These numbers would be a good starting point.
I have also attached an NHC ‘Calculator’ that the builder and Class Association can use for checking numbers of vessels and creating new ones. Please may I ask that this is not distributed amongst individual sailors, but kept as a Class/Builder tool.
I hope this will help you work out base numbers for any other boats that do not appear on our current NHC base list. Please note: NHC is not a measurement based scheme and therefore we do not encourage the use of the calculator to re-measure or re-weigh boats for which a base number exists.
If you have any further queries or need any more help, please do let me know.
Kindest regards,
Suzie
Suzie Holland
Technical Administrator
Royal Yachting Association
T: 023 8060 4200 | E:suzie.holland@rya.org.uk
UNQUOTE
Hope this is useful to you and others as we go into the racing season ..
However, I now hear there are some ructions at the RYA concerning this system ..
Regards
Andy
BC23 No. 25 Equinox