Over the years, IRC and ORCi rating rules have diverged. The complexity and workload for owners and crews in maintaining adherence to both is significant.
IRC, as the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s (CYCA) primary rating rule, has good compliance. ORCi, as the Club’s secondary rating rule, is witnessing increasing compliance and data errors. This undermines the integrity of the sport of sailing, races and the Club.
The reputational risk of continuing with two rating rules and having further compliance issues is too great. Action is required to protect competitors, the Club and its races.
Path forward
The CYCA is moving to a single rating rule:
- It’s too complicated and time consuming for owners to stay on top of two rules.
- The only way to mitigate future compliance issues and the associated negative press is to move to a single rule.
The one rule has to be IRC:
- As the CYCA’s current blue water fleet is optimised for IRC, (the rating rule used for the Tattersall Cup), IRC has to be the rule that it consolidates with at this point in time
Consolidating to a single rating rule simplifies the administration, cost and compliance burden on competitors.
It improves the spectator experience with clarity on winners. And it significantly reduces the risk of reputational damage for competitors, the Club and its races.
This move in no way diminishes the importance of the Ocean Racing Congress and ORCi as it will continue to provide one of the two ways in which a boat can demonstrate that it satisfies the stability requirements of the Rolex Sydney Hobart race. Importantly, the CYCA will continue to uphold the highest of safety standards in all of its races.
This change will take effect from the upcoming Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race and will apply to all races in the 2023/24 Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore:
- Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race (29 July 2023)
- Flinders Islet Race (Saturday 23 September 2023)
- Tollgate Islands Race (Friday 13 October 2023)
- Bird Island Race (Saturday 11 November 2023)
- Cabbage Tree Island Race (Friday 1 December 2023)
- Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race (Tuesday 26 December 2023)
For more information visit rolexsydneyhobart.com
