History of the handicap rating system

It is the spirit and intent of a handicap rating system to promote the racing of sailboats of various designs on a fair and equitable basis and for the skill of skipper and crew to be the deciding factor in winning/losing.

No winning chance
In 1851, on the immaculate lawn of the Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes, Isle of Wight, the story goes Queen Victoria watched the finish of the yacht race around the Isle of Wight for a 100 Guinea Cup. As the 147 ton schooner America was seen to cross the line, she is reported to have asked "pray tell me who is second"? - "There is no second ma'am", was the alleged reply. Only partly true, while the other sailboats of equal tonnage had either collided, were dsq's or had suffered grounding's, there was a second, eight minutes later the 47 ton cutter Aurora crossed the finish line. If the race had been run under any form of rating based on tonnage and length, Aurora would have won.

Waterline determines maximum hull speed
Unlike aerodynamics that set a maximum speed for a 'subsonic' airplane (regardless of its fuselage length), hydrodynamics for a displacement boat sets a maximum speed by the length of a boat's waterline length. Visualize a displacement boat, anchored with water flowing past it - waves will form along its side. Increase the speed of the water until there is only a 'trough' between bow and stern wave, the boat will have reached its maximum 'hull' speed.

1854 first "handicap"
In 1854, four years after the schooner America won the Guinea Cup, the Thames Measurement Rule came into being: Tons = ((L-B) x B x .5B)/94. [L = length stempost to sternpost and B = maximum beam], but was easy to subvert. Move the rudder forward [it hinged on the stern post], it doesn't change the actual waterline length but reduces it in the formulae, and gives the boat an enormous undeserved advantage in a lower 'handicap'. In the next 150 years, human ingenuity had no problem in getting around every handicap rule, greatly aided in recent years, by the computer...