RORC
Club page World championship for IRC…
At last the decision for IRC to have the right to hold a world championship was agreed by World Sailing at the 2016 congress in Barcelona. Described by World Sailing as a historic moment for offshore racing, it was a decision fraught with difficulties and in- fighting because up to this point it was ORC who had the exclusive right to have a world championship, whereas IRC is used by all the major offshore races worldwide.
With the Offshore and Oceanic Committee consisting of a majority of ORC committee members it was never going to be easy to pass IRC’s submission but chairman Stan Honey was insistent that IRC, as a World Sailing-approved rating system, had every right to its own worlds.
The argument by ORC supporters was that two world champion - ships for offshore boats was confusing. Support for IRC came from many corners including Alan Block (aka Mr Clean) – editor of the Sailing Anarchywebsite. Block was clearly bemused by all the fuss, explaining that in his sport of wrestling there are many different world champions which leads to increased participation and a super- title fight when two opposing world champions fight each other.
family who put on another splendid week of entertainment for all the crews in the lead-up to the start.
The weather forecast was poor with complex lows in the north Atlantic stopping the trade winds from establishing themselves. This forced the fleet into a much more northerly route than would be the norm and also the ideal. It was slow going and the MOD 70 Phaedoended up a full day outside her record crossing of 2015. The difference in strategies between Phaedo(rhumbline north) and Maserati(north) resulted in a 250nm lead for Phaedoby the third day which had extended to over 300nm miles by the finish. Maseratiwas also trialling a new lift foil and rudder on her port side during the crossing, skipper Giovanni Soldini declaring himself pleased with the results. Arco Van Nieuwland and Andries Verder had a good race on their fully crewed Marten 72 Aragon. They took a rhumbline course for the first week then dipped south to the developing trades for the second half of the race, finishing three days behind Mike Slade’s powerful 100-footer Leopard.
In the battle between the four Class 40s Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron in their new Campagne de Francehad eked out a good 200nm lead on race favourite Catherine Pourre in Earendilbefore the halfway point.
Right a bit
Working with the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda to cele- brate their 50th anniversary the RORC will run the 2017 RORC Transatlantic Race (in association with the IMA) from Marina Lanzarote to the YCCS winter home in Virgin Gorda. This race will also form part of the Atlantic Anniversary Regatta jointly organised by the YCCS and the NRV (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein). Both are celebrating anniversaries with the NRV celebrating their 150th in 2018.
The Transatlantic Race to Virgin Gorda will mark the end of YCCS celebrations and the start of the NRV’s – including a new race back from Bermuda to Hamburg after the 2018 Newport Bermuda race. The RORC have been asked to assist in the NRV offshore race which starts on 7 July 2018 (
anniversary-regatta.com).
We’ve always maintained that until IRC enjoyed equal bragging rights with ORC with similar world championship status from World Sailing then little or no progress would be made towards a co-operation that just might, one day, maybe, perhaps, allow us to enjoy international offshore racing again at the level of the Admiral’s Cup… though for No6 enjoy may not be the correct word
After much discussion and disagreement commonsense prevailed as the two parties, IRC and ORC, were asked to once again consider the compromise that was put forward by Stan Honey 12 months earlier at the World Sailing conference in China, where he suggested the creation of only one world championship but using both rating systems to score the results. Compromise agreed, the submission was unanimously approved and ratified by the World Sailing council at the end of the conference. With what was originally going to be the 2018 ORC Worlds having now been officially announced as ‘The Hague World Champion ships’, this presents a great opportunity for a diverse fleet of offshore boats from the Baltic and northern Europe to race against each other using both rating systems to decide the offshore keelboat world champion. It will be quite an event.
RORC Transatlantic Race
The two MOD 70s and 12 monohulls starting the RORC Transat- lantic Race left Marina Lanzarote on the edge of Arrecife on a beautiful sparkling sunny day with 10-14kt of northwesterly wind. The first mark was 5nm down the coast in front of the Puerto Calero Marina which, like Marina Lanzarote, is owned by the Calero
RORC Caribbean 600 Just shy of 50 boats have already entered the ninth edition of the RORC Caribbean 600 as we go to press so we have to be confident that last year’s record of 70 boats will be beaten. Racing yachts from at least 13 countries, a good proportion from the UK with the next highest being the USA, will gather in Antigua at the end of February to compete in what has become in a very short time one of the must-do international ocean races.
Ironically, climate change may have contributed to the popularity of the race with modern weather making that great skiing holiday a bit less certain – many people preferring the guaranteed sunshine of the Caribbean. ‘The RORC’, as it is known locally, is a very serious race sandwiched between two very good parties. If it’s not yet on your bucket list – it should be (
caribbean600.rorc.org).
Dawdle not
It is a Rolex Fastnet year and I have no doubt we will see the mad panic to secure a place in the race when entry opens at midday on 9 January 2017. I bring the time (12.00 UTC) to everyone’s attention because in the previous edition of Seahorse our Commodore quoted a time of 10.00 on the 9th and I would not want skippers waiting patiently for two hours to register their entry… It is important to note that entry is only confirmed when the boat and crew have completed the qualifying process in the lead-up to the race (
rolexfastnetrace.com). Eddie Warden-Owen, CEO
q SEAHORSE 63
GILLES MARTIN-RAGET
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