PHRF-LO names three Awards in honour of Brian Chapman

June 14, 2018

PHRF-LO (Performance Handicap Racing Fleet – Lake Ontario)announces three championships in memory of Brian Chapman who was a long time Technical Adviser to the its Central Council (CC): The Brian Chapman PHRF-LO LYRA Champion, the PHRF-LO Boat of the Year Award and the Chapman New Racer Award. 

Brian sat on the Council as a member of our Technical Advisory Committee. Whenever we decided that changes should be made to ‘level the playing field’, Brian was the first guy to dig into the numbers and his extensive knowledge (he was the head designer at UK International) to give us the probable results, good or bad. His advice helped PHRF-LO improve the rule so it was understandable to both competitors and sailmakers.

Because of his contributions, the PHRF-LO Executive decided to dedicate some awards to reflect his passions. Brian and I often drove to CC meetings together and talked endlessly about doing something to get more people off the dock and he had three main goals.

The first was to have an overall PHRF-LO LYRA Champion, the PHRF-LO boat in the LYRA regatta course racing and Freeman Cup. He was also concerned that the LYRA Boat of the Year (BOTY) competition excluded many boats from PHRF regions such as Georgian Bay or Ottawa for logistics reasons. We devised a list of suitable events from all PHRF-LO districts that would meet championship standards. Any PHRF-LO certificate holder is eligible.

Finally, the New Racer Award. It is for racers in their first three years of racing. After the results are reported, we do an analysis of every boats performance and report on the rating on their certificate versus the rating that they sailed at over the season. It also measures consistency. There will be a top boat in each region and an overall boat. This award was probably Brian’s greatest passion. He wanted people to get out and experience not only the sailing, but also the fun of competition.

– Brian Thomson, Chief Handicapper PHRF-LO