Current racing rules for the common sailor are known as PHRF (Performance Handicapped Racing Fleet) rules. The philosophy is to have a dynamic system of handicapping which looks to the performance of a boat model over time, but allows for adjustment to an individual boat based on options and/or modifications. What we consider long lean classic proportions of the boats of the early 1900s were at the time design exercises to manipulate the racing rules. Now our current boats tend to seek optimum performance as the prime criterion.