Ny klassindelning i ORCi

Det är dags för den årliga revisionen av ORCs VPP och de olika regler som styr seglingen på ORCi-EM och VM. Den största skillnaden i år är väl att man klurat ut ett nytt sätt att dela in klasserna på. Det har ju varit superviktigt att vara största (snabbast på kryss) båt i sin klass för att komma iväg i starten och vara med vid första märket. Därför har top 10 nästan alltid fyllts av de 20% snabbaste båtarna i klassen.

ITC noted two fundamental issues related to class divisions based on GPH:

1) the low possibility to design fast yachts in lower divisions (for example, Classes B and C in the last World Championship) without being compelled to make them too small to fit in the GPH limits. The consequence is that the winners of the lower divisions are always medium/heavy displacement boats, usually the largest in their class.

2) the first windward leg of the inshore races is a fundamental part of the race and it should be better to have as many boats as possible with similar windward speed in the same class.

Därför har man nu tagit fram ett nytt tal, Class Division Length (CDL), där man försöker beskriva kryssprestanda och att man låter detta vara styrande för klassindelning. Man föreslår följande gränser.

17.0 m ≥ Class A > 11.6 m
11.6 m ≥ Class B > 9.7 m
9.7 m ≥ Class C > 8.5 m

Vad innebär då detta?

Ett antal snabba båtar kommer att starta i lilla klassen. Kan någon av dessa bli en ny favoritbåt för seglarna?

Farr 30, Finnflyer 36, GP33, MaxFun 35, Melges 32, Summit 35 eller X-35? Även båtar som inte finns i listan borde kunna vara attraktiva, som Corby 33 eller liknande.

Några lite större båtar kommer däremot att åka upp en klass och få slåss mot betydligt snabbare båtar. Inte like kul för dem?

Dehler 39, Dufour 40, Grand Soleil 37BC & 40, Salona 37/38. Vad säger Martin & Vencom om detta?

Effekterna finns ju även mellan klass A & B, men här verkar det inte riktigt lika känsligt? Dessa klasser har ju typiskt färre båtar.

Även GPH, som ju indikerar hur snabb båten anses vara i regeln/VPP, har ju justerats. Som vanligt inga stora diffar.

Båtar “som blivit snabbare” är Ker 11.3, Carkeek, TP52 och annat lätt/snabbt. Men bara marginellt, dvs 0.1-0.3% Båtar “som blivit långsammare” är First 35 & 36.7 samt många X-yachts, även här med små skillnader. Här finns ett trendbrott där man under ett antal år snabbat upp de lite sportigare båtarna men nu verkar man tro att man är i balans?

J/111 ligger kvar på exakt samma som förra året. Norska Dacapo har 579,1 och CDL på 10,26, vilket är mitt i mellanklassen.

För er som vill labba själva så finns här ett Excelark.

ORC ANNOUNCES RULE IMPROVEMENTS FOR 2015

Rating system will now include defined classes for ORC championship events, the VPP has better treatment for Code 0’s, and a new method will be used for implied wind scoring; ORC grows by 10% in 2014, with over 9000 certificates issued worldwide

Palma de Mallorca, Spain — Amidst a 10% growth report on having issued over 9000 certificates worldwide in 2014, the recent Annual General Meeting of the Offshore Racing Congress is pleased to announces numerous improvements approved for use in the ORC Rules and policies for 2015.

These include the invention of a new parameter named CDL to aid organizers in class divisions, changes in the format and scoring of ORC championship events, improvement on the handling of Code 0 sails, and several other minor adjustments and clarifications to the rules that reflect the wishes of the constituency through the submission process.

The beta version of the ORC Velocity Prediction Program (VPP) is still under development, but trials runs on the ORC test fleet indicate only minor changes in ratings for 2015, with less than 1% change for most boats.

A significant innovation is a new parameter devised by the International Technical Committee (ITC) to help define class limits in ORC championship events. This parameter, called Class Division Length (CDL), relates the upwind performance of an entry to the boat’s rated length, and will be used by event organizers to better group boats of similar performance. CDL is therefore expressed not in terms of rating, but in meters of boat length.

The CDL limits suggested by ITC are as follows:

17.0 m ≥ Class A > 11.6 m
11.6 m ≥ Class B > 9.7 m
9.7 m ≥ Class C > 8.5 m

One of the first uses of CDL will be to define the limits for the three classes at the 2015 ORC World Championship in Barcelona, with the same limits recommended by the ITC for at the 2015 ORC European Championship in Parnu, Estonia.

All 2015 ORCi certificates will have CDL values on them to provide guidance for event organizers and sailors, but GPH values will also remain listed for general interest. A full explanation of the derivation of CDL is available here, and a list of all boats with ORCi certificates in the 2014 fleet and their 2015 CDL numbers are available for download here.

Improvements to the ORC VPP for 2015 include better treatment of headsails set flying with a smaller minimum area for headsails set flying and updated aerodynamic coefficients for a smooth transition in rating changes for between 110% jibs and 130% genoas.

The 2015 ORC Green Book of rules and standards for ORC championship events has updated ti include use of the same scoring coefficient of 1.0 for all inshore and offshore races. And while one discard is still allowed, an offshore race can be discarded only when two offshore races are completed, either as two separate races or as a long offshore race with a mid-course scoring gate.

Another important update is approved on the use of Implied Wind in Performance Curve Scoring, where the Implied Wind speed of the winner of the race will now be used as the wind speed to score the remainder of the class. This will replace the current practice of calculating the Implied Wind for each entry in the class. Besides being intuitively correct that all boats race in the same wind speed on an inshore course, this new approach will also produce results which are more fair for light boats that are rated fast in light wind conditions. A re-scoring test of events in 2014 with the new method showed no significant change in the overall results, yet gave some better results to the lighter boats that were struggling to reach their rated performance potential in 6-8 knots of wind.

Scoring software programs will be re-programmed in 2015 to reflect this new and more accurate approach to PCS scoring.

Among measurement items, the stability measurement procedure is now updated with an option to have the boat inclined by the weights positioned on the boom in addition to the standard procedure with poles. This will be particularly helpful on boats that would require very heavy weights to be suspended, as well as boats without any spinnaker pole.

A complete summary of the Changes to the Rules will be available once the final rules texts are finalized, with the target release date to be 1 January 2015. The complete Minutes of the ITC are available here, the Minutes of the various ORC Committees are available here, and the Minutes of the AGM will be available soon.