IRC Rating news November 2023

GBR IRC News November 2023

GBR IRC Committee annual meeting
IRC 2024 Rule and IRC Notice 2023-01 Number of Headsails
GBR IRC Championships 2023 round up
UK IRC Nationals Poole 2024
Broaden your knowledge with the 2023 IRC annual report
What happens when my 2023 IRC certificate expires? An important note about 2024 application.
A reminder of IRC certificate holder benefits
YachtDataBank - where you can organise and store your boat's documents digitally

GBR IRC Committee annual meeting

Image: RORC/Paul Wyeth

The GBR IRC Committee represents IRC owners and crews from around the UK and held its annual meeting in Lymington in September with Stephen Tudor from Pwllheli in the chair and Jon Pegg from Plymouth as vice chairman. The group also included representatives from the south coast, southwest, JOG, the Bristol channel, the classic fleet, the performance yacht fleet, RORC and the RYA. The RORC Rating Office team attended the meeting to hear and contribute to discussions and presented the proposed IRC rule changes for 2024 to seek the committee’s opinion before the international IRC Congress meeting in October.

This committee always enjoys enthusiastic contributions from members in the interests of sailors, clubs, IRC and our sport generally. These included discussion about course setting in the context of a single number rating system, equipment inspection at events, the IRC Championships, the RYA YTC rating system that the Rating Office has now been administering for a year, environmental issues and sustainability, and structural requirements for offshore yachts.

The minutes from the meeting are published online: https://rorcrating.com/irc-rating/gbr-irc-committee/

An excellent selection of GBR IRC Championships has been held in 2023 (more on these below) and a similar programme will be run in 2024. In 2024 the GBR IRC National Championship will move from Cowes for the first time and will be held at the International Paint Poole Regatta.

IRC 2024 Rule & Notice 2023-01

The following are published on the IRC Website:

The full IRC 2024 Rule text (effective from 1 Jan 2024).

IRC Notice 2023-01: This gives guidance on rating effects for the number of headsails; specific boat trials will not be available before January.

Please read these documents carefully to familiarise yourself with the changes.

https://ircrating.org/irc-rule/

IRC 2023 Congress Minutes

IRC 2024 rules press release

GBR IRC Championships 2023 round up & 2024 information

Image: RORC/Paul Wyeth

Another successful programme of IRC Championships was held this year, with the Inland Championship on Lake Windermere the only event still to be run, starting in November.

Congratulations to all the 2023 Championship winners:

NATIONAL

IRC National Champion 2023: YES!, Adam Gosling, JPK 1080

IRC National Two Handed Champion 2023: CORA, Tim Goodhew & Kelvin Matthews, Sunfast 3200

REGIONAL*

IRC Inland Champion 22/23: OFFLIMITS Alan Bennet, Platu 25 OD

IRC Welsh National Champion: MOJITO, Peter Dunlop & Vicky Cox, J/109

IRC Southern Champion: SASKIA V11, Mark Bulger, J/97

IRC Bristol Channel Champion: CTRL-J, Andy Williams, J/109

IRC South West Champion: ANTIX, John Allen, X-302

IRC East Coast Champion: FOXY, Mike & Jo Brand, X-34

IRC Channel Islands Champion: KAYA II, Roger Martel, Sunfast 3600

IRC Scottish Champion: BANSHEE, Charlie Frize Corby 33

*GBR IRC Regional Champions have the opportunity to race and berth for free at next year’s IRC National Championship, to be held in Poole 25-27 May 2024. https://pooleregatta.co.uk

Details of the 2024 GBR IRC Championships programme

UK IRC Nationals to visit Poole in 2024

Image: David Harding, SailingScenes

For the first time, the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s GBR IRC National Championship in 2024 will not take place from the club’s base in Cowes but will form part of the International Paint Poole Regatta. The 26th edition of the IRC Nationals, one of the major annual regattas for the international rating system operated by the RORC will take place on Poole Bay over 25-27th May 2024.

Broaden your knowledge with the 2023 IRC annual report

Image: Jehan Lérin - jehanphoto.com

2023 has been another exciting and busy year with a full programme of inshore and offshore IRC events. It can sometimes be easy to forget that as an international rating rule IRC is helping people have fair racing in local club events, open and international regattas and offshore classic races not only in the UK but around the globe.

As well as acting as the IRC Rule Authority for the UK, the RORC Rating Office works with a number of IRC Rule Authorities including Ireland, Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, India, Iceland, the USA and the UAE, administering IRC certificates for their fleets. In addition the IRC team are involved in measurement training, safety considerations, and are members of national and international technical committees.

Broaden your knowledge and find out more about the global reach of IRC, and technical developments for the future, in the 2023 IRC annual report on the IRC website here:

https://ircrating.org/about/irc-congress/

What happens when my IRC 2023 certificate expires?

And an important note about 2024 application.

Image: RORC/Paul Wyeth

We continue to see sailors joining IRC for the first time, or returning after a few years, so here is a reminder about what happens between now and the end of December, and how to renew your certificate for next season. All IRC certificates expire on 31 December each year; this is because there are updates to the IRC formula and rules each January to develop and improve the system.

IRC Congress meets in October and agrees the rule text changes which are then published on the IRC website, in the press and in a newsletter to IRC members. We will also be working on the IRC software to incorporate and test the formula changes agreed by the IRC Technical Committee, and will update the IRC application forms for the new year.

For 2024 you will be required to declare the number of headsails you carry aboard while racing, and if you only carry 1 headsail you will be asked to confirm whether you are applying to be rated for a single furling headsail. Please have this information ready before you start your 2024 application.

We expect to open applications for the following year in the first week of January, and will send out an email with all the information and links that you need to apply for your new rating. We will not issue any 2024 certificates or trials before the first week of January.

If you have not already done so, please make sure that you have added your boat to your account in MyIRC: once you are logged in, click Add a Boat in the Control Panel.

If you have any questions please contact us at [email protected] or give us a call on 01590 677030.

Go to MyIRC

Benefits for IRC members

Holders of current valid full IRC certificates benefit from the following offers:

Seahorse Magazine free online issues and discounted subscriptions

Tuff Luff discount from SeaSure

IRC member offers

YachtDataBank – Yacht Admin Digitised

Organised. Accessible. Secure.

The RORC Rating Office, as an internationally renowned centre of technical excellence for boat measurement, rating and safety, has been supporting the development of the YachtDataBank App since the idea was formed several years ago in response to concerns about the safety of racing and pleasure yachts.

YachtDataBank, conceived and developed by people actively engaged in the leading edge of the sport, is potentially a key part of the solution. YachtDataBank is an aid to owners recording information, documents and surveys relating to their boat and crew and making it easily accessible, creating a Digital Yacht Log bonded to the yacht throughout its lifetime. YachtDataBank offers improved certainty and enhanced value of yachts at resale.

Yacht details, records, documents, surveys, crew, useful tools & introducing partner services & suppliers.
User Benefits & Discounts with selected Insurers & Service Suppliers coming soon.
Development ongoing.

See more detail at www.YachtDataBank.com

Contact: [email protected]

We hope that you enjoy receiving our updates which we are careful not to make too frequent, though there is more that we need to let you know about as the end of the year approaches. If you are an IRC certificate holder, please note that if you unsubscribe from this list we will be unable to send you news about IRC changes or how and when to apply for your certificate renewal.

Boat name/cert no. reference (if applicable): 441590677030

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