33 Perspective

In the article 33 DQ'd, we told you how PHRF SoCal found that a modified Hobie 33, Magic Light, had alledgedly violated measurement rules and received a three-month suspension. Given that we know the solid integrity of one of the sailors on the 33, Keith Lorence, and are hugely suspect of anything PHRF does, we thought we'd now present Keith's side of things. Good times.

Friends,

As Magic Light has been dragged thru the coals by people with ulterior motives and then bashed by the uninformed, I thought it might be a good idea to present the other side of the story. All stories do have two sides.

Here's the story of the "witch hunt" for Magic Light.

In late 2002 we turboed the boat up, specifying a 1 foot oversize roach mainsail and a longer pole, with proportionally larger MH A-sails. All of these changes were reported to PHRF of San Diego, and are clearly noted on the certificate for all to see. Magic Light was given a rating, and we have sailed in conformance with this cert for three years with no complaints, including this past Little Ensenada. In 2003 we requested a rating from PHRF SoCal in order to sail the Ensenada race. Per their request, a copy of the PHRFSD cert with all of this info was sent to Personal to match them up. They got the most important parts right, the spin sizes and the rating, but overlooked the remarks section where the mainsail modifications, SPL, and transom are clearly noted. These mods never were transcribed to the socal cert, but were and are still very clear on the SD cert.

All of this information, including copies of our certs was sent to PHRF Social before the meeting in time for them to look it over. But when I was asked to stand up, I asked how many of the board had read this info. NOBODY had even looked the info. The witch hunt.

In the spring of 2005, we ordered a new genoa and larger mainsail to conform to the cert, but with a fatter head. The sailmaker requested a copy of our 2005 cert in order to match the girths to the new sail. (Fact here-the old re-cut main was under the cert numbers by .5 foot on the MGM and under by .2 on the MGU). As the new main was ordered to conform to the cert, with the full sized girths, and they had the numbers, we never thought to measure it. It did look bigger, but we expected that it would as the old one was well under. We sailed the king harbor race with this new sail in good faith that it was built to specs. Because of the vitriolic whining another Hobie owner made after having his ass kicked by over 2 hours by a bunch of children, (my son and the owner's son and another kid and one old man), I measured the sail and found the MGM under by .1"and the MGU over by 3".

Wow, really giant! I reported this immediately and requested a rating analysis, as we wanted to use this sail in the Little Ensenada race. This was not possible, as they had already had their monthly meeting, so we sailed, with the blessing of PHRF SD, with our older Dacron main in the Ensenada race which, once again, is in complete conformance with the SD the cert. Yes indeed, we unknowingly sailed one race with a main that was a couple of inches over on one girth but reported it immediately upon discovery in the Corinthian spirit.

Battens… Crap, they didn't want to talk about this and shut us down immediately. Why did they even bring it up? One of the board members actually admitted aloud to us that as much as 30% of the PHRF So Cal fleet is sailing with illegal batten spacing. My comment to them at the board meeting was that if they wished us to modify our new main to conform to this rule, I would be happy to do this, as long as they required all of the other non-conformers to do the same. Or, they could change the rule. I did make mention that if they were not going to make the rest conform to the same rule they were asking us to follow, we would feel obliged to file a protest. They didn't like this at all, I mean, who wants to tell Roy Disney his certificate is invalid due to an illegal mainsail? They shut this topic down fast.

Because of the misinformation that was spewed out from the meeting and subsequently blown out of proportion by the misinformed, you all may be thinking that this is an ongoing thing. It is not. We're talking one race here where we made an honest mistake.

At the end of the day, they asked us to refrain from racing Magic Light for 90 days until the cert is corrected. To correct this, we will be sending them the exact same info and measurements we sent three years ago, and in the hopes they read it all this time, it will be in size 18 font. After which, we will apply for a rating adjustment for the new main with an MGU that is 3 inches bigger, which is all we were really asking for in the first place.

Thanks to you, my friends. who have supported me and know that I have had enough success in my sailing career that I do not need to win sailboat races enough to cheat. To those of you armchair sailors who are so quick to pile on, get your facts straight first before you malign.

"I never go off half cocked till I have all the facts" -Yogi Berra

Keith Lorence

10/25/05