Another new rule?

A working party has been set up to solve the rift between IMS and IRM/IRC

Handicap round the cans yacht racing is going through an odd period at present. It is a growing sport, but globally it is highly fragmented and this is presenting a significant problem to organisers of international events. The principle reason for this situation is the lack of international agreement on a mutally acceptible handicapping system with, for example, the UK committed to racing under IRC/IRM while in the Mediterranean there is good competition taking place under IMS.

Nowhere has this problem been highlighted more than the debacle over the Admiral's Cup, where RORC have had to cancel one event and with the new format for this year's race, they have been forced to forsake their own grand prix rule in favour of IRC and IMS or else risk no overseas competition.

RORC are not alone among race organisers in facing this problem and there is a feeling internationally that moves must be made to get handicap yacht racing back to the position it was in during the heyday of IOR, when you could race competitively under one rule regardless of whether you were in Europe, the US or Australasia. In particular what is needed is a international rule for grand prix events.

To address this problem, a new working party has been set up to examine whether or not a new rule could improve global unity in grand prix big boat racing and if so, what type of rule would it be?

This action has been sponsored by RORC, ORC and US Sailing and was agreed at an ISAF meeting in November. On the working party are US Sailing's Peter Reichelsdorfer, Califonian navigator Stan Honey, RORC's Stuart Quarrie, Australian designer David Lyons, the ORC's Manolo Ruiz de Elvira, ISAF Paolo Massarini and consultant Olin Stephens. They had their first meeting on 24-25 March in Annapolis, MA.

The make-up of the working party is such that there are a range of opinions from the different camps plus some experts such as Honey and Quarrie who have considerable first hand experience racing under the various different handicap systems.

The first meeting of the working party was said to be "incredibly positive" and much time was spent trying to establish how to proceed. The upshot of the meeting was that a survey is to be carried out globally of participants, both pro and amateur, race organisers, designers and all interested parties to get their views. "We need to ask the world whether or not an international grand prix rating rule would be supported globally - whether it is wanted or not and if so, what type of rule the world wants," Stuart Quarrie told The Daily Sail.

The questionnaire was drafted at the meeting and over the course of the next few weeks must be finalised between the three parties involved - RORC, ORC and US Sailing - before it is translated into Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch and French and disseminated. Meanwhile members of the working party will be contacting key members of the yachting community directly to get their opinion.

While a strong feeling exists that here is a problem to be solved, Quarrie says that there is genuine concern that a new international rule might not work simply because racing conditions vary so much around the world. "It is hard to find a rule which will cater for everyone. Racing in the Med is mostly in 8-14 knots by the time the sea breeze has come in. In the Sydney-Hobart, there are big seas and you can get 60 knots. So you end up with inherently different boats. Similarly on the east coast of the States, in Newport for example, most sailing is in under 10 knots with the sea breeze while in the Solent the average wind speed is around 15 knots. So maybe no one wants to play in a international way..."

Aside from establishing whether a new international rule can be effective, the working party want information on a variety of issues from what size of boats are likely to take part, to the effect of obsolesence to whether new developments such as canting keels should be encouraged or prohibited under a new grand prix international handicap system. This latter issue will be tested this year with the canting keeler Wild Oats, entered as the Aussie IRC big boat in the Admiral's Cup. "That sort of innovation makes ratings pretty hard," says Quarrie. "But if you have a grand prix rule that prohibits them - does it make it an outdated rule?"

Whatever rule the working party conceive it will be typeforming and it will be important they ensure that the result produces the right kind of boat. "My personal view is that the boats should be stiff, fast, fun and exciting. How you get there is almost irrelevant," says Quarrie. It could equally be an adaptation of IRM as it could be an adaptation of IMS he says.

Many believe IRM failed internationally either because it was seen as a US v the United Nations scenario with RORC trying unsuccessfully to force their will on the rest of the yacht racing community or simply because RORC did not try hard enough in selling the idea. Meanwhile IMS is going from strength to strength in the Med with five new custom boats being launched for this season.

The next meeting of the working party is to take place at the end of May. If the results of the survey indicate that there is enough common ground to warrant a new rule then its format will then need to be beaten out.

The new rule, assuming its creation is to go ahead, is likely to be either be a VPP-derived rule like IRM or a VPP-based rule like IMS. If this is the case and the new rule is a revised version of an existing rule then it could well be published in mid-2004.

Below: the new IMS600 class is finding favour in the Med and will be the small boat for this year's Admiral's Cup



So what are the lessons to be learned?

Firstly the correct philosophy for a rule needs to be addressed. The fundamental idea of a handicap rule is to make everyone equal. But how equal? Some basic rules used at club level, for example, incorporate the performance of the crew as well as the boat, so if a crew sails well in one race they are penalised in the next. This is clearly not acceptible for a grand prix rule.

It would seem sensible that a handicap rule should equalise all boats by applying correcting handicaps to their elapsed times. But if the handicap rule really is an effective leveller of all then why would anyone bother to build a one-off boat when potentially a production boat costing half the price is just as capable of winning?

Other classic problems with handicap systems are that they can encourage boats to be 'equally bad' rather than encouraging performance ie the faster your boat is the more it is over-penalised by a rule.

But does speed matter? Surely if a handicap rule creates competitive racing that is the only thing that is important?

At a time when yacht design and technology is advancing at pace be it through the use of materials such as carbon, moulded sails, composite rigging, etc or with new features such as wingmasts and canting keels in general circulation thanks to the 'open' classes, a new grand prix rule cannot afford to produce boats that are too far behind the latest technology or it will seem outmoded. It seems to make little sense for an owner to go to the expense of building a new purpose-built 'state of the art' boat to a handicap rule only to find it is lame when up against other similarly-sized boats be they one designs or built to another rule.

One only has to remember the early 1990s when handicap racing was in the doldrums and the breath of fresh air that came with the introduction of one design sportsboats such as the Melges 24 allowing people to race around the course competitively at breakneck speeds without being nobbled on handicap.

The speed issue was also in the mind of the Volvo Ocean Race organisers prior to the introduction of their new boat. Volvo Ocean 60s are no slouches but are not quick when compared to similar-sized racing multihulls or even Open 60s. As a result the organisers have changed up to higher performance 70 footers conforming to a more open box rule. So it is felt, in Volvo circles at least, that the speed of their boats relative to those in other spheres of yachting is an important issue.

There is of course the flipside to this argument. Creating a rule which embraces new technology to too great a degree will lead to rapid obsolescence of boats, so there needs to be some form of compromise whereby owners do not find themselves having to build new boats each year.

Another interesting reaction to the announcement of the new Volvo Ocean 70 were the fears expressed from some quarters is that this more open rule would make the racing less competitive.

However another less obvious truth is that whether a handicap rule is written to encompass the widest possible number of boats or whether boats must conform to the most open of box rules bearly limiting the design at all - all are type forming. Whether this is due to designers believing they have found the 'sweet spot' of a rule or owners simply not wanting to experiment at the risk of finding themselves campaigning a dog - in a strangely Darwinian sort of way all boats eventually end up being typeformed.

One only has to look at the 60ft trimaran class in France to see an example of one of the most open rules in existence creating boats that have evolved to the stage where they are nearly identical in their principle dimensions.

A Ker 11.3 - typical of the kind if boat designed to rate under IRM



Horses for courses

Another issue needing to be addressed is to ensure that the right handicap rule is used for the right type of race.

There seems to be in essence three types of handicap race, each of which needs its own considerations:

- high end international grand prix events like the Admiral's Cup and Commodore's Cup
- large fleet races such as Cowes Week, Round the Island, Copa del Rey, SPI Ouest
- local club races.

While the latter two are suited to all-encompassing rules like IMS and IRC, which can cope with almost any size of boat anywhere in the racer to cruiser spectrum,
our view is that a handicap rule for international grand prix events should be tailored towards specifically race boats. It should also be able to cope with the high degree of optimisation that is likely to take place and ensure that the typeform it creates is fast and exciting to sail.

Race organisers are understandably keen to choose a wide reaching handicap system for their events in order both to attract the maximum number of competitors and to produce an overall winner from the entire fleet. However this will always include an upper echelon who will try to beat the rule. Wide reaching rules often don't fair well under such scrutiny and the result is unusual bastardised boats with features such as IOR speed bumps.

Race organisers need to be harder on competitors to prevent this by for example ensuring that those in this upper rank race under a grand prix rule.

A successful demonstration of this was Ford Cork Week last year when the organisers insisted that all 'grand prix' high performance boats, which they deemed as having a displacement to length ratio of 145 or below - including all the Farr 52s and 40s, IC45s, Ker 11.3s - should race in a separate IRM division. Other boats such as the John Corby-designed Nokia and Gloves Off, that didn't comply with this formula were also invited to sail in the new Grand Prix class.

Over the next few days we will be getting the views of various key people on this topic. If you have a view then click here to here to send us an email via Outlook or here to use a text box.