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More debate about the Commodore's Cup and the new Bethwaite trapeze harness

Simon Brown and Dierdre Horneck raced the Prima 38 White Knuckles II in Ireland Green

Our interview with Farr International's Peter Morton has set Prima 38 sailor Julian Bates off...

Ah yes - the usual whining about the outcome of a handicap event, and I don't really blame anyone for so doing. Inevitably ANY handicap system will produce unfair levelling of boat performance in some - if not all - circumstances, and placing 33 different shaped boats on a start line to follow the same course was always going to be risky.

Let's be clear - these boats were vastly different. To put a 52 foot race boat against a 35 foot caravan (thank you Mr Morton I feel 'so' warm and loved as a potential customer that I might just have to go out and buy a 'proper' boat from you?) and expect any rating system to make sense across a variety of conditions and courses is naive. IRC isn't bad, and has it's merits over other systems, but nothing is perfect.

The RORC race committee possibly has some lessons to learn from the RCC but give them a break. This was supposed to be a Corinthian event. The best alternative in my view is one-design racing, and even though I have a vested interest, I have to say that some excellent boat on boat racing was had at Cork by the 15 Prima 38s. No bitching about dodgy ratings, no worrying that because the wind had dropped off so much that the such-and-such design of boat would then clean up on handicap etc. Just racing. We do however have to live with our handicap system for most big boat racing, and it would be nice if we could do a little more to address the problems in the system that from time to time might discourage owners and crew:

1) Race like boat with like boats. I don't mind racing against IMX40s, as at least they have a similar boat, and a similar performance profile. I have to wonder how they can have more sail area, more waterline length and yet manage in some cases a rating only one pip higher than my own, but again that is in the details of IRC. If I race against a Mumm 30 (rating just a pip or so higher still), we will beat them to the windward mark (unless it is very light) and then have to hope that they don?t get past going downwind. It becomes a lottery of course and conditions, and is no fun for either boat. Well it is probably still fun, but few pretend the result is anything meaningful.

2) Take a look at the way race boats are treated under IRC. Some race boats currently seem to have handicaps under IRC which allow a middle fleet crew in a race boat to beat a good crew in a modern design IRC boat (a 'caravan'). It has to be about what an average crew can achieve, not what is theoretically possible with a top crew, otherwise we really aren't being fair to the vast number of IRC customers who are rank amateurs.

3) It would be great if everyone followed the Cork lead and kept race boats apart. If the rating office increased the rating penalty for higher hull factors (=stripped out race boats), then that would also encourage the race boats to stay away from competitions intended for the caravans?

4) Can we put in place a more active form of scrutineering for winning boats. Next to nothing is done at present, and as such the system is way open to abuse by those that have no sense of sportsmanship and/or are driven by commercial considerations ('works' boats). I would like to see the CC returned to its roots, and the change to IRC was a step in the right direction. I don't understand why we need professionals at all...

PS: Mr Morton please don't bring your race boat into an IRC event and then be rude about the design of boat for which IRC is predominantly intended. YOU are the odd one out...

Farr International's Peter Morton sets the record straight...

I would like to apologise to David Scanlon and all those owners of 'dual purpose' yachts more commonly known as cruiser/racers for refering to your boats as 'caravans' - it was inexcusable. If you use your cruiser racer for both racing and cruising with your family then I am sorry. If you use your cruiser racer for racing only because you think they are treated better in IRC and you seek to get an advantage then I am not - get a race boat and be counted.

I owned a dual purposose yacht until recently - a Farr 395 The Great Escape and even beat David at the Dartmouth Regatta last year. I often refered to it as my caravan (never actually slept on it though). As I said in my interview I think Fandango (with a little help from my employee Mike Richards and some carbon sails) did a fantastic job for the English Team.

IRC is by far the best rating rule in the World for cruiser/racers and does a very good job to allow all types of boats to race. When a Contessa 26 beats a Farr 52 by 16 secs in the Round the Island race then there can be few doubters - but I repeat that IRC must be protected from bandits. My argument is that there will always be bandits and those bandits should be forced into a published rule that everbody can see and does not rely on unmeasured input.

In my view IRM is also the best measured rule in the World and having been the last unfortunate owner to build a 50ft IMS boat in this country (Venture 99) I can assure you that IMS boats are positivly dreadful. One only has to rememeber the difference between the performance of the Farr 52 Bear of Britain and the Farr 53 IMS Bribon at the America's Cup Jubliee where Bribon was not even on the same leg as Bear to realise that IMS produces slow, expensive, ugly and tippy boats.

As for the Commodore's Cup - my views are well known but in future either there has to be rating bands or the spread of size reduced. I would like to place on record that I think France sailed a great regatta and deserved their win but as for us British yachtsmen aspiring to reach their standard! Someone needs to do some homework before going to print especially as that person obviously did not see the performance of his hero in the Farr 40 Worlds last year and awarded me the Somerset Memorial Trophy in 2000 for easily thrashing 35 French boats in their own backyard during the Tour de France a la Voile. I would put the Barlo Plastics crew of Ado, Jules, Andy, Gerry, Tim, Shag, Nipper and Stuart up against any French crew (note crew and not boat with IRC rating!!!)

Donal Byne added this...

I think he [Peter Morton] has made the case very well for rating bands. How narrow do the bands have to be to make them work properly, i.e, give fair racing?

Phil Laurence has this to say about RORC Commodore Peter Rutter's thoughts on the standard of British sailing at the Rolex Commodore's Cup...

I have just read Peter Rutter's comments on the standard of British sailing: I don't know what colour the sky is where he lives, but he clearly hasn't been round here for a while! The standard of our top sailors is higher than it's been for years and just wait until the next batch of youngsters come through. If that's his view, no wonder the RORC are so detached from the mainstream and out of date British sailing is on a roll - Shame the RORC can't keep up!

Contined on page 2...

This photo of Colm Barrington's Gloves Off , which sailed in the Ireland Orange team, is for reader Conor Clarke