Hope balanced with frustration...
IRC 72 class manager Rob Weiland takes a wry look at today’s hotch-potch of offshore – and inshore – rating rules
If the problems of owners, sailors, rule and event authorities dealing with handicap racing and rating rules are anywhere more obvious than in the US, please do not tell me where that is. My recent visit to Quantum Key West Race Week inspired me to the following observations…
Of the two ISAF-recognised international systems spread over dozens of countries in the world, IRC (about 7,000 certificates) and ORC (about 9,000 certificates), only IRC has been used in the US in the past 10 years. But its use there is now in steep decline. A couple of events still have small IRC starts, scrambling together enough boats by having wide rating bands; which is not ideal and is not helping to promote the use of the IRC rule. This also affects in a negative way the interest from non-US owners to bring ‘handicap-racers’ to the US… and vice versa.
The US VPP-based system ORR is a black-box operation (‘trust us, we are professionals’) and has just over 600 certificates in use in two countries: the US and Mexico. Its ‘non-typeforming and fair VPP’ (
offshoreracingrule.org) is positioned to the slow side of HPR and IRC, targeting the typical cruiser-racer. Meanwhile, that 600 certificates number is leaning heavily on ORR being the mandatory rule for the Transpac Race, the Chicago-Mac Race and the Bermuda Race, forcing owners interested in those classics to send a few bob to ORR!
Never mind that owners and especially foreign entries have to adapt to the quirks of a local system for these three allegedly international events. It is not the cost of the certificate, but the cost of the boat optimisation that frustrates owners! Twice, as after the race you go back to where you came from, or to the next one, if you have a decent international schedule for your boat. A 50ft to 72ft racer may do Key West Race Week (IRC or HPR), one or two
22 SEAHORSE
Caribbean events (CSA), Caribbean 600 (IRC), NYYC Annual Regatta (IRC or HPR), Bermuda Race (ORR), Copa del Rey (ORCi, possibly IRC if enough interest), Middle Sea Race (IRC)… And the Caribbean Sailing Association (CSA) rating rule is yet another ‘adventure’.
All these rules (except HPR) claim to be created with the intent of handicapping fairly a broad variety of monohull yachts. Pity the fair approach does not lead to equal typeforming and the same boats winning under different rules! Instead of every dog has its day (the single number scoring catchphrase) we are heading for every dog has its rule.
So praise here to HPR, the only rule to claim as its start point that fair handicapping is only possible if boats are typeformed. And thus promoting typeforming instead of making false promises.
Face it, as a user of these rules you will have to make continual equipment choices and these choices affect the outcome of the game. Also, of course, the rulemakers do recognise the imperfections and demonstrate this with yearly rule upgrades – even perfect equipment requires a yearly check-up and tweak! It is the survival of the fittest, financed predominantly on the back of the yacht owner. Not that the yacht owners are completely innocent or without blame in this one, quite a few are intrigued by the possibility of outwitting the rulemakers – as well as the competition – before it gets to the actual racing. Back to the US. Recently it has had quite a few rule options. It is instructive to read a report by America’s number one rating guru, Jim Teeters, dating from 2000 but still good reading (
scora.org/teeters.pdf). Jim’s brain really should be stored in the cloud somehow. How are we going to cope when he retires? With well over 20,000 certificates PHRF, which stands for Performance Handicap Racing Fleet, is the most popular rule in the US. ‘A performance observation-based handicap system is the best assurance to compete fairly between all designs, new or old, of high-performance family cruising boats.’ So PHRF handicaps are based on the speed potential of the boat and equipment in
INGRID ABERY
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