http://www.ncphrf.com/timeontime.html 
http://www.sailmag.com/PHRFTOT/ 
http://www.phrf-nb.org/whitepages/racersguide.pdf .

 

A PDF copy of the analysis that Chris Delling did of our 2007 results can be found here. 

 
How analysis was set up:

In  "2007 Spring Series TOD vs TOT", Chris took the weekly times for each participating boat in our PHRF A-D fleets, and arranged them into two fleets.  They are expressed in seconds, as Excel does not support entry of times in hours/minutes/seconds (note: times shown are CORRECTED TIMES only).  The table on the left shows the TOD scoring.  Flag positions for each fleet are highlighted for each week.  The table on the right shows the same results recalculated using TOT scoring.  Time correction factors were arrived at using the formula TCF= 650/(PHRF + 550), where PHRF = the race rating for the subject boat.  Below the tables, Chris summarized the spring series overalls (using low point scoring, two throwouts/5 best races) for the fleets using TOD and TOT handicapping.  

 
Brief Summary of analysis:

Chris feels the results of this analysis show a relatively small impact on the order of finish of the weekly races, and no affect on the top-three positions each week.  There is also little impact on the series overalls, and again, no change in the flag positions.  He added a row showing the standard deviation of times for each fleet/race.  In general, the spread of corrected times for each fleet (top to bottom) do tighten up using TOT, as is suggested in the supporting articles. 
 

General thoughts from your webmaster:
With our current scoring system of Time On Distance (TOD) there is the tendency for small boats to do better than larger boats in heavy air.  In light air the opposite tends to be true (large boats do better than small boats). Time On Time (TOT) will tend to lessen these affects.  Lake Shore Sail Club went to TOT in 2007 and there were no complaints as did DRYA Saturday PHRF Fleet. 
There are a couple of negatives.  It is pretty easy to "ball park" your corrected finish time with TOD which serves as a double check on published race results.  I also think that the move to TOT should be done in conjunction with NSSC for the sake of local continuity. 

If you have any thoughts you would like to share in this space please email me at mdclow@warmgear.com and I will be happy to post them.