RORC
Club page 10 years on
Last month I celebrated 10 years as CEO of the RORC. It has gone by quickly – probably because I have enjoyed it so much but also because of the support I have from the flag officers and committee. During the 10 years I have been supported in my work by four Commodores (the fifth, Steven Anderson, is just starting his term), two Admirals, 20 flag officers and 60 main committee members. Their longstanding commitment and contribution to the RORC have helped shape much of the success seen over the past decade. My very first task was to oversee the refurbishment of the race
office in Cowes, which included dividing up our historic building into a large, purpose-designed reception area for competitors and enough office space for the RORC race team (plus, of course, the crew weighing room at the rear that is no doubt fondly remembered by starved and dehydrated sailors from all round the world). The building works well and is a good showcase for the club on Cowes High Street; it later became the permanent office for our race team following the merger with the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club in Cowes. The RORC Caribbean 600 is probably the club’s biggest success in this period and it is fitting that this year is the 10th edition of
with the start of the recession and consolidating the RORC offshore programme and increasing or maintaining a strong membership were the priorities. Ten years on, membership is strong (4,000 members) and growing, the domestic race programme maintains its kudos and popularity and the name of the RORC carries weight and influence in oceanic sailing all over the world.
Performance 40 Class The Fast 40+ spawned the HP30 Class and now a Performance 40 Class, designed to encourage the multitude of cruiser-racers that populate our marinas to race within an organised circuit. The idea was first put forward by North Sail’s David Swete and has gained sufficient momentum for a programme to be established, including the Warsash Spring Championship weekends, two Royal Southern Yacht Club regattas and a weekend of the Hamble Winter Series. RORC have included the class in the Easter Challenge and given the P40s their own start in the Vice Admiral’s Cup. A Performance 40 is defined as a cruiser-racer within an IRC band
between 1.075 and 1.145 with hull length between 11.15m and 14.1m and Displacement/Length Ratio from 130 to 200 (a Fast40+ DLR is around 80). Maximum draft must be no more than 2.65m. Into a carefully defined package of parameters float a multitude
of well-known boats including the J/111, J/122, J/133, IMX-40, Grand Soleil 43, Arcona 41, JND 39, Corby 41, Mills 39, Matt 12 and King 40… With the Fast40s, Class40s and other higher-profile boat types
hogging the limelight at this size, this initiative provides encourage- ment for those in the much bigger mainstream fleet, especially crews on faster cruiser-racers who may be feeling a bit eclipsed by the growing wave of lighter displacement designs. David Swete needs congratulating on the idea and the hard work that made it a reality.
Mapfre VO65 watch captain Rob Greenhalgh drives Keith Mills’ Jason Ker-designed Fast40+ Invictus in the Solent. Invictus began life as one of the second-generation Ker40+ designs series built by McConaghy but has since been constantly updated including rig refinements plus several keel changes. As a past 18ft Skiff and Int 14 World Champion, a regular top performer on the Moth circuit, multiple Volvo veteran and busy tactician and coach Greenhalgh can perhaps best be described as ‘versatile’ (and pretty quick)
the race. John Burnie and Stan Pearson came up with the idea of the first offshore race in the Caribbean and as both are RORC members they called me a short while after I joined the club. I grabbed the idea with both hands and persuaded the committee that this was a perfect opportunity to further expand the club’s inter- national presence. I never imagined the race would achieve the notoriety, popularity and growth it currently enjoys. With this year’s race attracting 90+ boats it has been a huge success. Before working for the club I felt that the calendar of RORC events
was too uncertain for longterm planning, so one aim was to ensure that iconic races like the west-east Transatlantic race from Newport to Cowes and the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race are fixed on the calendar on a guaranteed cycle – in both cases every four years with the Newport to Cowes transat in odd years as a feeder to the Rolex Fastnet Race. The popularity of the Caribbean 600 later gave rise to our east-west Transatlantic feeder race from Lanzarote to Grenada which is run annually and continues to grow slowly as we always anticipated would be the case. One personal ambition not achieved was to revive the Admiral’s Cup, an event very close to my heart. But my arrival in 2008 coincided
78 SEAHORSE
Commodores’ Cup and IRC Europeans Fitting the Commodores’ Cup team event inside this year’s IRC European Championship did raise the question early on as to how the teams will be scored. The regatta will be the highlight of the Solent season and starts on 10 June using the same format as the previous Commodores’ Cup; a blend of windward-leeward and round-the-cans racing in the Solent, a 24-hour offshore race and a race around the Isle of Wight. One week and 10 good races. Scoring the Commodores’ Cup competitors this time tested the
brains of our race and rating offices. Issues include three-boat teams racing in four divisions, plus RORC’s desire to deliver only a single IRC European Champion. This means confirming the class splits at the last minute to divide the fleet into four parts that are as equal as possible given the diversity of the fleet. As a result teams have no control over whether or not a boat is
on the cusp of a rating band. This might seem unfair to some. On the other hand, it eliminates the gaming of rating splits seen at other big events which severely disadvantages otherwise well- executed campaigns that are less disposed – or able – to spend large sums reconfiguring their boat and sails for a single regatta. To address an unusual scoring situation the race team and rating
office between them devised a novel solution based on scoring the Commodores’ Cup boats separately as follows: ‘The Commodores’ Cup shall be determined by taking each competitor’s Commodores’ Cup series score and applying a class/fleet multiplier to her score based on total number of Commodores’ Cup entrants in her class/fleet. The total lowest team score (as per RRS 2017-2020 A4) shall be the Commodores’ Cup winner.’ Whether your class is heavily populated with Commodores’ Cup
boats or has very few the weighting of the score will reflect the difficulty of achieving the result. The sceptics will have their questions, I am sure, but the race team have come up with an original, fair and workable solution. Eddie Warden-Owen, CEO
❑
RICK TOMLINSON
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