Striking a balance
As a cornerstone of competitive sailing around the world, IRC strives to create a fair and competitive environment for a diverse fleet of boats to race together. Every year the IRC Technical Committee and IRC Congress debate and decide on rule changes aimed at improving the fairness of IRC racing. Sails are a boat’s driving force and a key area of development, so it’s no surprise how often an IRC rule change involves the rating of sails or associated rigging. So a key change for 2024 is that for the first time the number of headsails will be rated (from 1 June in the southern hemisphere). Let’s look at why IRC’s rating of headsail
numbers carried is not only a logical step from a performance perspective but also a sustainable one for the sport. Recent years have seen a rise in the number of increasingly specialist headsails being added to onboard inventories, bringing a plethora of initials
such as JT, SS, GS, MH0 and FR0. Offshore racers are often seen sporting double, triple or occasionally quadruple-header configurations today… and with no rating penalty. At the other end of the scale are the club racers with just one or two headsails in their entire inventory. While IRC 2024 doesn’t count how many headsails are set simultaneously, there is now a rating price placed on the number of headsails carried. The more specialist sails carried the greater the ability to increase sail area by setting multiple headsails, particularly for larger boats set up in a reaching configuration offshore. Introducing this new rating input aims to help ensure that race outcomes continue to be determined as much as is practical by skill and strategy, rather than by a costly overabundance of sails. IRC Rule 21.7.1 – requiring that boats shall not
IRC 2024 Rules and Definitions
IRC 2024 Rules and Definitions are available to download at
ircrating.org
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The triple-headed rig first came to prominence in the 2017 Volvo Ocean Race – the second held in VO65 one-designs. To make the most of this rig good trimming is a prerequisite; one reason – the other being cost – why the set-up soon found an IRC audience among big budget campaigns where the financial outlay on sails andpro crew to trim them was less material. So for IRC to adhere to its basic principles of fairness something did need to be done
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