without incident, and even more surprised when the jury at first awarded them average points in both races.
Terry’s old boss and longtime friend Paul Cayard on Maxi 72 rival Shockwave called the Bella team out on this, managing to re- open the hearing with enough evidence to convince the jury that the wreck was marked and thereby not subject to a redress request. Bellawas re-scored with a DNF and their only third place finish in the series. But it had no effect on the outcome: with just three boats in the class and so few points to lose, Bella may have lost that battle but she won the war on the strength of six wins in 10 races! An interesting feature to Key West this year was seeing the four GC32 foiling cats zipping around the Division 1 course. In 9-10kt, maybe even a bit less, these boats offwind had enough horsepower to elevate on their foils and take off, followed by a flotilla of RIBs and helicopters.
Will we see more of the GC32s in the future? Perhaps… yet while they looked great fun, there were clear differences on the water, made apparent by the varied levels of experience among the teams. More time and a few more boats would close these gaps and make for genuinely exciting racing.
Lastly, it was also interesting to see our post-race Seahorse Panel Discussion on handicap sailing so well attended this year, with the room rammed full of owners, sailors, media, designers and race organisers interested to hear our panel of experts discuss the pros and cons of a diverse alphabet soup of rating options: PHRF, HPR, IRC, ORR and ORC. Principles such as accuracy, ease of use and transparency were all discussed at length. As a longtime PHRF handicapper, Bruce Bingham explained that PHRF in the US was improving by having better baseline numbers to use, that Time on Time made no difference to Time on Distance (at least in Key West), and that some areas are using a multiple-number solution for inshore versus offshore races. Bruce also conceded that each area still wanted its own autonomy, so consistency would always be a problem.
Bjorn Johnson then explained that ORR was open for business to provide customised VPP solutions for those events that wanted them, and that a new Triple Number Plus system was being prepared
that would replicate what ORC Club does in ORC cultures. But he explained that ORR still needed some secret elements to maintain fairness across the broad range of boat types it rates (for the tiny handful of albeit important ORR events – ed). Steve Benjamin, on the other hand, explained that HPR is completely transparent, it continues to fill a small but important niche in the grand prix world, and that its future is brighter on the international scene now that ORC has ISAF approval to form a new class. He also explained that ORCi continues to grow overseas with many different boat types being raced successfully in major international events.
John Brim added that IRC, introduced 10 years ago in the US, has seen a recent drop in popularity. A study will be conducted by the New York YC this year that will examine the use of IRC, ORCi or ORR for its future events.
Former TP52 and now Maxi 72 class manager Rob Weiland has been a student of rating systems over the decades, and opined that it was a shame that the US has so many rating options, since it introduces great confusion for sailors and organisers. He also decries the lack of use of internationally recognised systems in the US (see Rob’s essay on page 22).
As an organiser of another important race week (the Storm Trysail Club’s Block Island Race Week), Dick Neville was also unhappy with having too many choices, in particular the use of dual- scoring (which he says greatly dilutes the value of a single winner), the lack of consistency in PHRF ratings and US Sailing’s lack of leadership in providing clear direction on this matter. The audience, reinforced by comments from Sailing Anarchy’s much travelled Alan Block and others, clearly looked for the same: strong leadership, transparency and a sense of change to reinvigorate current stagnancy into a more fertile environment for growth.
Who knows: maybe this is what we’ll see here at Key West 2016… along with a possible new short offshore race to Cuba, only 90 miles away and beckoning once again now that relations are thawing. Got to get there before the rest of the US invades… Dobbs Davis
c-cyachts.com
The One-Design Rocket Tough Enough to Race Offshore
A Division of USWatercraft, LLC - The Home of New England Craftsmanship - Built in the USA - +1 (401) 247-3000 SEAHORSE 19
JOIN THIS FAST-GROWING OFFSHORE ONE-DESIGN CLASS 25 BOATS SOLD AND COUNTING
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72