ORC
With a deteriorating forecast what promised to be a wet and wild long offshore opening race at the 2023 ORC Worlds in Kiel was quickly replaced by a much shorter coastal sprint, but for once at least this year’s major ORC regatta enjoyed some proper breeze and was all the better for it. After years of lighter-air events most (at least) thoroughly enjoyed getting their decks wet for a change
I submit
It’s that time of year again. Time to prepare for the World Sailing and ORC Congress. Mercifully we are close to home this year in Malaga. I guess everyone’s feeling the pinch. I’ve been on the International Technical Committee of the ORC
for more years than I care to remember, and thanks to my ongoing tolerance of spending weekends in dingy conference rooms I became chairman three years ago. Given this long experience I shouldn’t keep being surprised by how long it takes to distil our year’s work into a dozen pages of prose. It takes even longer to compress it to 1,500 words, but here goes. This year’s changes to the VPPs are best described as ‘house-
keeping’. A less frantic year has given the ITC time to assess our VPPs (ORCi and ORCclub for monohulls, ORCsy for Superyachts and ORCmh for multihulls) in the round and see ways that we can refine the code and make it more robust. The submissions from Member National Authorities (MNA) are
when you find out what the sailors really think. Your homework gets marked, shortcomings in the product are brutally detailed. A year ago we made a change to how we calculated hull resistance to better serve boats that lie outside the mainstream, such as ULDB Sleds, Class40s, Cal 40s, and other boats that Stan Honey likes to describe as ‘US frumpy boats’. We were confident that across the 2,000-boat test fleet the new formulation did a better job. Yet among some fleets the changes disturbed the handicap
status quo and prompted concerns from those who felt harshly treated. For some competitors a handful of seconds per mile one way or the other causes deep despair or joy unconfined. The mur- murings rumbled on throughout the season, with owners threatening to sell the boat and take up golf – something we’ve all heard from time to time! Others cast aspersions on our Neural Network Methods, we had been naive and used too many variables. It should be noted that such targeted critiques are only possible
because we publish our methods. It was a tense time… I’m not naive enough to expect competitors to be altruistic, but I was hopeful that handicap shuffling was a price worth paying for a big improve- ment to the VPP. Thankfully the submissions deadline passed and there were none related to the new resistance model. So we live to fight another day. After a very windy start to the ORC Worlds in Kiel, the USA and
others have also asked for the VPP to account for wind speeds up to 24kt, not the current limit of 20kt. These submissions set the course for next year’s research. The process of preparing a formal submission with a proposed rule change and the rationale is a useful filter. It separates bar room moaning from well-researched ideas. This year’s submissions congregated around four themes: equipment, rules, scoring and aerodynamics. Equipment The allowance for polyester sails was retained, mast
34 SEAHORSE
jack pumps used while racing will attract a handicap adjustment, and S-glass construction will be permitted without penalty. The handicap adjustment for non-circular rigging will be slightly reduced, despite concerns that swapping rigging between ORC and IRC events is costly. The committee also discussed ‘Non-Manual Power’… Limits on sensors informing the autopilot There is a submission
to the World Sailing Oceanic and Offshore Committee that will restrict the use of sensors that scan outside the boat. This is to protect competitors from another step in the autopilot arms race. Stored Power (Energy) Where this is derived from batteries and
generators there is no confusion. But boats now carry accumulators that can store ‘manual power’ for use in the future. Such power may be manually generated even before the start. This situation is not currently addressed in terms of handicap. Rules and defin- itions related to the use and handicapping of Non-Manual Power systems are not well co-ordinated. The RRS and ERS do not easily transfer to the language and systems of offshore racing yachts, and the handicap rules adopt different terms and approaches. Rules The increase in the number of Double Handed Certificates
has prompted a closer look at the weight allowed for safety gear. The simple linkage to crew numbers doesn’t work when the crew is two rather than eight, so the calculations will be adjusted. Cruiser-racer regulations will remain unchanged, but the amount
of internal ballast carried by some cruiser-racers will be scrutinised. The regulations about minimum fuel tank sizes will be adjusted
for boats with electric propulsion, though some owners will be sur- prised how big the battery needs to be to replace a modest fuel tank. Age allowance remains unchanged, despite a well-argued
submission from the USA to extend it out to older boats. The ORC VPP aims to rate all comers, including older hull designs,
so an allowance for non-contemporary hull shapes seems an admis- sion of failure. The age allowance does not relate to old sails, old spars and rigging, poor hull fairness, which are the usual deterio- rations of age. It was also noted that over time the boat’s vertical centre of gravity moves higher, new or accumulated gear is seldom found at the bottom of the keel. A new inclining test will quickly get the boat correctly rated for its current state. Aerodynamics The aerodynamic depowering model for 2023 had
some unforeseen effects on the behaviour in 20kt of wind when sailing upwind. The VPP depowering scheme is based on a process of first flattening the headsail and mainsail until the boat is over- powered. Then the headsail foot is reduced to reduce area, and the mainsail is reefed. Some streamlining of the code is needed to alleviate issues with this step-wise process, paying more attention to the link between the sail driving force and heeling moment. The Headsail Set Flying Force model has been further adjusted with the aim of reducing the number of HSFs being inappropriately
CHRISTIAN BEEK
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