Yachts & Yachting – April 2018

for the Hague Offshore Sailing World

Championship, they will form a

combined scoring system. ORC results

will be determined by the corrected

timescalculatedbyTimeonTime

Offshore Single Number for the offshore

races and a Time on Time Triple Number

for the inshores, while IRC scoring will

beasnormal,usingeachboat’sTCC.

The ORCi and IRC scores will be added

together to form the overall results.

For this to work, a small logistical issue

existsinthatallcompetingyachtsmust

have both IRC and ORCi ratings. While

thanks to the extensive measurement

requiredforORC,datafromanORC

certificate can simply be used to

create an IRC certificate, additional

measurement is required for IRC boats

attempting to get an ORC rating.

“Everyone who has entered from GBR

• we are hand holding them through the
  process of getting their boat measured
  for ORC,” says Dr Smithwick. “We have
  had one measurement session and we
  are planning another. We are doing the
  measurement but then we are handing
  over to the ORC to do the certification
  side as there is no ORC rating office in
  the UK.” In many other countries having
  IRCandORCworkingjointlyismore
  naturalasoftentheyhaveasharedrating
  office, run by the national authority.
  Among the well-known boats
  enteredsofarareMarkEmerson’sA13

Phosphorus II (ex-Teasing Machine), the

Ker 46 Lady Mariposa and Hitchhiker

(ex-Girls on Film) Fast40+. In Class B

there are the First 40s, Rob Bottomley’s

SailplaneandLaRéponseofRORC

Admiral Andrew McIrvine; while

Class C includes Ed Fishwick’s Sun

Fast 3600 Redshift Reloaded, Andy

Williams’MaxFun35MadMaxand

James Chalmers’ J/35 Bengal Magic.

IRC’S STRICT GOVERNANCE

In the UK IRC continues to remain the

ratingsystemofchoiceandtheonly

onenotbasedonaPY-typesystem.

WhileIRCisafairlyuniqueintherules

world for being ‘secret’ (although any

decent yacht designer will have a good

ideaofitsmaindrivers)theperception

of some is that the Rating Office can

introduce its own ‘fudge factors’. In

fact this could not be further from

thetruth.TheRORCandUNCLhave

governance in place and are constantly

monitoring new areas of development

towhichtherulemightneedtoreact.

Embracing new technology is tricky

as on the one hand the innovators want

IRC to look favourably upon their

new widget, while fundamental to the

ratingsystem’sremitistoprotectthe

existingfleet.Itmustnotbevitalthat

everyone immediately go out and buy

the latest widget to remain competitive.

Those who guide and administer IRC

alsohavearesponsibilitytoprevent

unwelcome aspects creeping in as

designers and teams attempt to optimise

their boats to the rating. For example,

thereisatrendtowardsdeeperdraftthat

many classes have had to limit, notably

the Maxi 72. There is also a trend in

somesizestousefinratherthanbulb

keels. Meanwhile above the water there

have been other developments, notably

from Doyle Sails with several Maxi 72s

last season using a ‘cableless’ Code 0;

instead, uni-directional fibres run up

the luff to take the loads between tack

and head and around which the sail

canbefurledfromthebottomup.

Allsuchdevelopmentsarereviewedby

the boffins who work behind the scenes

at both the Rating Office and the UNCL.

FAST40+ AND HP30 FLEETS

Most high profile of the classes with

IRC at its core in the UK is certainly the

13

NEXT MONTH

HP30 class insight

On sale

13 April

For this to work a small logistical hurdle is

that boats require both IRC and ORCi ratings

Fast40+. In 2018, 10 boats will race, with

NiklasandCatherineZennströmfinally

joining the class with their latest Ràn and

most likely to challenge Peter Morton’s

GirlsonFilm,withInvictusownerand

2018 champion Sir Keith Mills taking a

year out before rejoining in 2019. The

Zennströms’ new Carkeek design is

beingbuiltbyJasonCarringtonatthe

former Green Marine facility in Hythe.

Highlights include the National

Championship (29 June-1 July), the

One Ton Cup (13-16 September) and

International Paint Poole Regatta (26-28

May).PooleWeekwillalsohosttheIRC

Southern Championship, one of several

IRC regional championships being

held around the country - including a

doublehanded championship – (full list

at rorcrating.com/irc-rating-gbr/irc-

regional-champs) which many teams are

using as training for the IRC Europeans.

AlsowitharuleanchoredinIRCis

the HP30 class, in which craft such as

the Fareast 28, Farr 280, and Seascape

27cancompete.Afteraslowstartover

the last two years, the HP30 looks to be

gaining traction in 2018, with numbers

entering double figures and a packed

calendar culminating in a Series Final at

HambleRiverSailingClubinOctober.

Above

The French were

winnersof the

last Commodores’

Cup in 2016

IRC SEASON PREVIEW

26 Yachts & Yachting April 2018 yachtsandyachting.co.uk