SO40DS Handicap opinion please

[super g]

I've recently entered a couple of fun yacht races with our local club and I'm trying to get my head around the handicap system. I've been given a PY of 875 and hopefully on day I will sail to it! Mine is a 40DS with shallow keel (4' 3"?) with inmast reefing.

What puzzles me is on the RYA website they give a handicap of 883 for a SO40, but bizarrely for the Sunfast 40 it is 927?

I wouldn't have thought I'd be giving so much time to a Sunfast?.

I'm not bothered for my local club races, but if a decide to enter other races then I would like my handicap to be a reasonably accurate reflection of the potential of my boat.

Any wisdom gratefully received! And yes I know a 40DS is not exactly a race boat!

[MartyB]

Is the handicaping system a low number, ie the 875? or the higher number the 927? In PHRF in which I sail, the lower the number, the faster the boat. I believe from looking some numbers up, the system you are using the lower number ie your 875 is considered slower the the SF40 at 927.

Look it up and verify.

Marty

[super g]

Good point, but It is definitely the lower the number th faster the boat. www.rya.org.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/technical/Web%20Documents/Cruiser%202012V1.xls

Though I think the sunfast 40 handicap is based on a 3 bladed prop.

[debenboy]

Byronsoftware.org.uk has the SO40 at 881 with a folder.
Byron seems to have a more substantial database than the RYA PY scheme.
I would have thought that in-mast reefing and a shallow keel should have earned you a few points on your handicap, perhaps bringing you to a number equivalent to the Sunfast dragging that washing machine drum behind it?