The RORC rating office has announced the IRC 2007 rule changes which will apply from January 1st.
The changes to Musto IRC Rules for 2007 are generally minor. Perhaps of most significance is that there is now provision for a boat to hold a separate certificate for short-handed racing at the same time as a standard rating.
Until now it has not been allowed to hold two certificates at the same time, to prevent crews declaring which they would race under according to the conditions on any day, but with growing interest in short-handed racing, this has understandably been seen as a special case.
It will be interesting to see if the rule change, which will greatly reduce the cost of swapping from crewed to short-handed racing during the course of a season, encourages even more people to try racing short-handed.
Another innovation is the introduction of a headsail top
width measurement (HHB) in the interests of preventing abuse. For the great majority of boats, the change will have
zero effect, says Mike Irwin of the RORC Rating Office.
Apart from these, changes for 2007 will have little practical effect for the majority of the fleet.
Here is a summary of the changes:
- Changes to Rule 9.2 permit a boat to hold a second,
concurrently valid IRC certificate for use in short handed races
only.
- Rule 12.2 is amended for greater clarity without any change to
meaning.
- New Rule 14.2 recognises the effect of novel high powered sail
handling systems which will in future be rated.
- New Rule 20.3 is wholly administrative and prevents a boat being
penalised through no fault of her own.
- New Rules 24.5 and 24.6 formally incorporate IRC Notice 001 from
2006 related to the materials used in keels.
- The definition of headsail half width, HHW, is amended to be
consistent with other definitions. The change has no practical
affect.
- The definition of mainsail hoist, P, is amended to remove ambiguity
without changing the actual meaning.
- Definitions of Backstays, Runners, and Checkstays are now included
to assist with understanding.
- The definition of headsail top width, HHB, is introduced and Rule
26.7 amended to prevent abuse of the simplicity of IRC sail
measurement.
- The definitions of Moveable and Variable Ballast are amended to
remove drafting errors and to be consistent with ISAF Offshore
Special Regulations.
The full 2007 IPC Rule text can be found at www.rorcrating.com
