ORC fight back

Chairman Bruno Finzi and Technical Committee chairman Alessandro Nazareth discuss the new ORC International rule

By the end of 2008, the Offshore Racing Council (ORC) will know if they made the right decision when they launched ORC International. Bruno Finzi, ORC Chairman, and Alessandro Nazareth, Chairman of the International Technical Committee, share their views:

A lot of people have claimed that the IMS rule developed slow and typeformed boats. Will the new rule prevent such a development?

“ORC believes that all rules are more or less typeforming. The old IMS rating rule was often accused to typeform towards slow boats because of their lack of stability, obliging boats to get rid of stability to remain competitive. In the last few years of IMS this trend was already partially corrected,” says Nazareth.


Alessandro Nazareth

He continues: “The new rule has been developed considering all the effects of Righting Moment in the VPP, looking for a correct and fair treatment of the boats that increases their stability. A new evaluation of the Righting Moment that is used by the VPP was established based on both the RM measured during the floatation and on a standard RM derived by the boat characteristics (Sail Area, Length, Beam, Displacement). In this way righting moment will be more related to sail area and boat dimensions and how crew tune the sails to reduce heel.

“More than this a new corrected Residuary Resistance curve based on a LVR (length/volume ratio) function that could better take into account light boats’ characteristics was also implemented.

“The combination of these two new formulations (RR and RM) joined with the aero modifications have been verified and the results is a VPP that makes light and stiff boats closing the handicap gap against the heavy and tender boats.

“So this new VPP will finally erase any need to reduce stability and if any typeforming still exists, this will even drive designs towards stiffer, lighter and safer boats.

What do you think of the launch of a new ORC product? Has ORC succeeded in their work?

Finzi responds: “It is early to answer to this as the first certificates was issued on 1 January, but feedback is good, the sailing constituency is returning positive comments to the new rule, a lot of interest has been raised around the world and already hundreds of certificates (both International and Club) have been issued in less than two months. Remember that racing season will begin only springtime in Europe.”


Bruno Finzi

What was the goal and task for ITC when they got the job to make the new ORC International rule?

Nazareth responds: “ITC was addressed by ORC Management Committee at the beginning of 2007 with a very hard task: Deliver by 2008 a new VPP that will finally further correct the IMS typeforming factors in the direction to encourage fast and fun to sail boats; full compatibility with ORC Club should still remain and IMS will stay only as the standard measurement system.

“The goal was a new VPP-based rule, and last November in Estoril, ITC delivered. The result of their hard work was the new ORC International rule, with certificates issued in the beginning of January 2008.”

Do you think ITC has succeeded in their work?

“From a technical point of view, we believe all the major issues were solved. Now we have only to wait for the feed back from the races,” says Finzi, and stresses the point that it still is too early to give any judgment.

Do you believe in a future with one common international Grand Prix rule?

“We at ORC are fully convinced that if an International Grand Prix rule should be adopted it must be VPP-based and fully transparent for designers, skippers and owners. We therefore trust that ORC International can be the one, says Finzi.

Why does such a rule in your eyes need to be VPP-based?

Nazareth: "A VPP-based rule avoids the possibility to design special boats for just one event, the so-called “horses for courses”. It must be clear that the co-operation of very professional Race Organizers and Race Committees is very important to avoid any mistake in the application of any VPP rule, but when talking of a Grand Prix rule this should be a standard requirement.

“ORC VPP rules have a lot of other scoring options that could be adopted for lower level races to reduce the impact on results of such possible mistakes. Single number time-on-time or time-on-distance options are fully available on all certificates.

“It is true that Grand Prix owners and sailors are asking more and more to have Grand Prix classes racing in real time, but a lot of important events, where different boats are involved and an overall winner is requested, ORC International is a very good answer to the request of a very refined Grand Prix rule.”

Why should sailors use the ORC rules ORC Club and ORC International when going racing worldwide?

Nazareth: “ORC is strongly connected to ISAF that gives under its regulation a status of International to ORC rating rules based on their unique characteristics of both being transparent and scientifically based. ORC is also the only non-profit organization that is capable to provide single Member National Authorities the capability to run and administer its rating rules.

“Objective and not subjective, transparent and not secret, worldwide and not locally, scientifically based and not empirical formula based, these are some of the reasons to choose a rating system and to be able to race around the world with one certificate.

“ORC is also convinced about the possibility of awarding fair handicaps to every kind of boat, including those with canting keels."

What do these rules have that make them better than the other rating rules?

Nazareth: “First of all, the ORC International VPP has a background of more than 20 years of research activities - like tank testing, wind tunnel and CFD - that is currently updated every year. For example, last year new wind tunnel tests were conducted at Milan Politecnico University, and this year will be new tank tests with new models at Delft University. Other fundamental characteristics are that this is a recognised international rule, it is not secret, it has a wide variety of scoring options, and any typeforming is towards stiff and light boats."

Why do you believe that a VPP based rule is better than an empirical 'secret' rule?

Nazareth explains: “A secret rule can be subjectively modified to adjust handicaps without any possible control. More than this nobody could doubt that when a rule is defined 'empirically', either if it is secret or not, then it has not enough scientific background as a VPP-based rule. When you can predict almost precisely the speed of a boat over a wide range of wind speeds and angles, there is no other way to give her a fair handicap, not even with the more refined 'empirical' rule.”

Rob Weilland, TP52 class manager says that a secret rule is an insult to the intelligence. Do you agree with this?

“ORC of course is in full agreement with Rob,” says Finzi.

Do you get the impression they are having a stab at IRC? Is ORC International a good alternative? Is an alternative needed? Email us your views here