The Hague Offshore World Championships – ‘powered’ by IRC Club page
RORC
If the world was watching then they could hardly fail to notice that each class in The Hague Offshore Sailing World Championships was won by boats developed under the IRC Rating System. Class A was won by Karl Kwok’s Botín 52 Beau Geste, Class B by Clause Landmark in the Mark Mills-designed Landmark 43 Santa and Class C by the J/112E J Lance 12, overall winner of the recent IRC Europeans and for this event chartered by Gideon Messink. This was the first time that the only international rating rules
sanctioned by World Sailing, IRC and ORC were being used to decide ORC’s Offshore World Championships, a decision imposed upon ORC by World Sailing when IRC requested their own world champion - ships. Each of the 85 boats was required to have an IRC Endorsed certificate and an ORCi (fully measured, hull scan and inclined) certificate and received a result under both IRC and ORC – the two results were then added together and the total points decided their position in each race. There were some rating outliers, more highly optimised for the
rating system under which they raced in their home waters, but they were few in number and the majority of the fleet received similar scores under ORC and IRC – which is interesting considering the completely different approaches used by the two systems.
Disappointingly few UK, Irish and French had made the trip, but
we are steadily recognising that the overlap between inshore and offshore racing is becoming smaller with offshore racing continuing to grow strongly at the expense of inshore entries. At this time of year there were also many rival events competing
for the same boats. A new record of 133 boats started our own Cowes-St Malo race which was run the same weekend as the worlds; similarly, the Volvo Round Ireland Race with a bumper entry of 64 boats. Or maybe the cost of full ORCi measurement put people off. They did, however, miss a very good event that was painstakingly organised by the Yacht Club Scheveningen.
Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race From 36 entries, 28 boats started the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race on the final Sunday of Cowes Week. This race runs every four years with a fleet primarily made up of enthusiastic amateurs who are up for a tough 1,805nm challenge. The 2018 line-up included 11 Class40s and even Vendée Globe
veteran Mike Golding came out of retirement to join the fleet. The Class40 has been impressive since its development in 2004 as an affordable offshore boat using a box rule to control development. The RORC have embraced the class as it attracts many enthusiastic private owners who want a serious offshore raceboat but lack the enormous budget required for an Imoca 60 campaign.
RORC Points Championship This has been a light-wind season (up until the start of the Channel Race!) but we have neverthe - less enjoyed a new record number of entries for a non-Rolex Fastnet Year. Of the 133 boats that started the Cowes-St
Malo extremely light winds caused over half the fleet to retire. Most, however, headed straight for the Channel Islands where a huge party soon got rolling… Pierre Sallenave, sailing with his two sons
It’s getting harder… regular Cowes Week frontrunner Adam Gosling won IRC 2 but this year he did not win the big boat group overall – the prize going to the J/109 Jack Rabbit (how much IRC silver have J/Boats won in 2018? Answer: a lot). Gosling’s latest Yes! is a well-optimised JPK 1180… but don’t all rush because the waiting list at Jean-Pierre Kelbert’s La Trinité shipyard for this latest must-have IRC accessory remains extensive
IRC promotes the simplicity of its rule and ORCi, through its more
complex measurement system, its accuracy to predict the VPP of each boat in different wind conditions. No effort was spared by the organisers to amass a large team
of measurers to ensure every boat complied with the measurements used to create its two ratings. In the end the racing was very close, of a high quality and results decided on very small margins. If you sailed your boat well you got a good result which is as it should be. The offshore race at the beginning of the week was innovative,
with a gate halfway which generated a single point for the first half of the race which was then added to the double-point final result. For three-quarters of the offshore race the wind played ball with a northeasterly sea breeze slowly clocking to an easterly land breeze overnight, but when the heat of the new day caused the land breeze to die away many competitors suffered. Holland was the perfect place to hold the first edition of a joint
world championships as the country is fairly equally divided with ORC being used in the north and IRC in the south. The venue is also close enough to ORC users in the Baltic and the IRC stronghold of the UK, France and Ireland.
62 SEAHORSE
Jerome (13) and Arnaud (15) in his X-442 Ster Wenn 5, was the overall winner of the King Edward VII Gold Cup having listened to the advice of French offshore legend Géry Trentesaux to go far west of the Casquets. Ster Wenn found wind while the rest of the fleet were becalmed. Bolstering the St Malo fleet were boats
competing in the inaugural La Trinité-Cowes Race. Jointly organised by the Société Nautique de la Trinité sur Mer and RORC, this was
regarded as a big success attracting 34 boats, 12 of them racing two-handed. It is likely to become a regular summer fixture and a possible addition to the Season Points Championship. The Volvo Round Ireland Race was won by Niall Dowling, taking
both line honours and the overall win under IRC in the chartered Ker 43 Baraka GP. Barry Byrne’s J/109 Joker was second overall and Chris Power Smith’s J/122 Aurelia third. The 2018 Channel Race proved to be the windiest race of the
RORC Season’s Points Championship to date, with competitors reporting gusts of up to 40kt and a short sharp sea state for the blast to Beachy Head and back to the Solent. Noël Racine’s JPK 1010 Foggy Dew was the overall winner by just over two minutes from the Ker 46 Lady Mariposa skippered by Nigel King. Tom Kneen’s JPK 1180 Sunrise, sailed by Stuart Greenfield, was third. As we come into the final part of the season Richard Palmer’s
JPK 1010 Jangada is the overall leader of the RORC champion - ships, with Noël Racine’s JPK 1010 Foggy Dew in second and the Army Sailing Association’s X-41 British Soldier, fighting valiantly to prevent another JPK clean sweep, in third overall… Eddie Warden-Owen, CEO
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INGRID ABERY
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