Each year, the Classic Yacht Owners Association Technical Committee reviews the CRF rating system to identify potential improvements and ensure the system is as fair as possible. The committee and Committee Chair Jim Taylor recently unveiled updates to the system for 2026:

The CYOA Technical Committee does an in-depth analysis of the classic racing season every year. The qualitative part of this effort documents the conditions (weather, course content, etc) at each of the year’s CYCS events. This review highlights a large number of very close finishes among a wide variety of boat sizes and types, which indicates that CRF 2025 did a quite good job of handicapping a very diverse fleet across a broad range of wind and sea conditions.  

The quantitative part of this work calculates the difference between the actual ‘as sailed’ performance (elapsed time over distance sailed) and the potential performance predicted by CRF rating. This is done for boats that have been frequent participants in CYOA events and that are similarly well prepared, well equipped and well sailed. This year this study revealed that two groups—the Classic Division generally and a small subset of Spirit of Tradition (SoT), Contemporary, and Modern Division boats—were not able to sail as closely as they should to their CRF 2025 ratings. 

It is well understood that there is always room for improvement in CRF handicapping. With this in mind, some refinements planned for CRF 2026 are summarized below, along with information on several issues that some competitors have found confusing, plus a ‘heads up’ on others that are under consideration for the future: 

1. Classic Division

Many of the boats in the Classic Division that have struggled to sail to their CRF ratings share a combination of characteristics that is generally distinct from the rest of the CYOA fleet: They have ‘In Aperture’ propeller installations, they fly symmetrical spinnakers from a pole, they have quite low sail area/displacement ratios, and some have shoal draft. The treatment of these features will be adjusted in CRF 2026 to slow down the ratings of this group:

• The Prop Factors for all ‘In Aperture’ propeller installations will be further reduced
• The rated area of symmetrical spinnakers will be slightly reduced
• The Sail Area Displacement Factor will be reduced for unusually low sail area/displacement ratios
• The Draft Correction will be reduced (made more negative) for unusually shallow rated draft

2. Some SoTs, Contemporaries and Moderns

Most boats in these three groups seem to have been rated fairly by CRF 2025, but a small subset of them seemed to be rated too fast, and these share a unique combination of extremely high sail area/displacement ratios, unusually deep draft, and very broad sterns. With this in mind, CRF 2026 will slow the ratings for this small group by changing the treatment of these features:

• Lower the Sail Area Displacement Factor for extremely high values
• Reduce (make less positive) the Draft Correction for unusually deep draft
• Reduce the increment added to effective sailing length ‘L’ for very broad sterns

3. Asymmetrical Spinnakers Tacked to a Pole

• Tacking an a-sail to a pole that can be squared back increases downwind VMG by allowing the sail to be effectively carried at deeper true wind angles. To date, this configuration has not been addressed by CRF rating.
• Starting with CRF 2026, boats that declare that they will tack a-sails to a pole will have their rated spinnaker area increased, which will speed up their ratings by about 2 sec/mi. 

4. Use of ‘Tweener’ or  Code Sails

• A spinnaker is defined by the RRS as a sail whose mid width is equal to or greater than 75% of the length of its foot. All other sails set inside the foretriangle, other than staysails, are then defined as headsails.
• Regarding headsails, Section 8.3 of the CYOA’s Classic Yacht Racing Guidelines states that the luffs “of all headsails and staysails (except spinnaker staysails) shall be fully attached to stays, except while being set or struck.” This means that for CYOA racing the only sails that can be set ‘flying’ (with their luffs NOT fully attached to a stay) ahead of the forwardmost mast are those that measure as spinnakers.
• Put another way, in CYOA racing no sail having a mid width of less than 75% of its foot length may be set flying, with its luff not ‘fully attached to a stay’.  This precludes the use of free flying ‘tweener’ or ‘code’ sails that are not rated as spinnakers.

5. Data Declaration Issues

• Displacement: This is intended to be the weight of the yacht as presented for racing, in pounds, excluding crew weight. For yachts that are primarily raced and daysailed, this is similar to a 'light ship' or ‘measurement trim’ displacement, with empty tanks and minimal food and gear. For yachts that are equipped and provisioned for cruising when racing, this is similar to 'half load' or ‘sailing trim’ displacement, with tanks half full and ordinary food and gear. Note that it is critical that the declared LWL and declared Draft both correspond to the same floatation plane as that of the declared displacement. This means that if a displacement is declared that is heavier than a designed or published value, the declared LWL will be longer, and the declared draft deeper, than the designed or published numbers for those values.
• Mainsail widths (girths): Declaring sail widths at one half (MGM), three quarters (MGU) and seven eighths heights (MGT) is invited for all mains, and is required for all mains built since 2021. These dimensions are readily available from the sailmaker and declaring them can result in slowing rating slightly for mains with a modest roach profile.
• Spinnaker widths: Declaring spinnaker mid widths (SMW for symmetricals and AMG for asymmetricals) is required for all chutes built since 2021. Again, these dimensions are readily available from the sailmaker.

6. On the CRF Technical Committee Radar

• Possibly giving a rating credit for racing with roller furling headsail gear
• Possibly giving a rating credit for racing with open tunnel bow thrusters
• Possibly allowing the use of free flying ‘tweener’ code sails for at least the Contemporary and SoT Divisions,  with an appropriate adjustment in downwind sail area that would speed up rating.  Input on this issue from participants is invited.