Commodores' Cup modifications

Small boat size limit revised plus other changes for next year's event

The RORC is to introduce a number of changes for the next Brewin Dolphin Commodores' Cup due to take place out of  Cowes over 23 and 30 July 2016.

The first is the requirement of every team to have a small boat with a IRC TCC between 1.000 and 1.049.

"Many teams in the last event believed that it was hard to be competitive without having three boats that were close to the top of the allowable rating band, as was the case of last year's winning Irish team," commented RORC CEO, Eddie Warden Owen. "Lowering the rating band to 1.000 will make it easier for J/109s to enter, to include boats like the JPK10.10, A35 and the new Sunfast 3200, and reduce the cost of competing. This group of boats will have their own starts, but if a team has more than one boat within this rating band, and it is possible to have three 'small' boats, it will have to nominate which boat will compete in this division. The maximum rating is still 1.230 and there has been no change to the rule that only allows one boat in each team with a rating between 1.150 and 1.230,"

The second change is the addition of an extra professional sailor to each team, but without stipulation which boats they shall sail on. The exact wording is as follows: "The crew of each three-boat team shall include no more than six Group 3 Sailors. These Group 3 sailors may sail on any boat or boats in the three-boat team however crews cannot change after the Final Crew List has been submitted except as stated in NOR1.7.2.

"The thought was that many boats who have aspirations to compete in such an event, race with people who work in the marine industry and by virtue of their job, are regarded under the ISAF eligibility rules as Group 3 professionals. While it should reduce the need for owners to make wholesale changes to their crew just to fit in with the event rules, it will give teams the opportunity to use the professional sailors to enhance weaknesses in the team overall. In theory you could load your weakest boat with six professionals if it was thought that this would strengthen the team as a whole," explains Warden Owen.

The other significant change is the removal of crew weight from the rules so that the boat sails with the crew number as shown on its IRC certificate.

Download the Notice of Race here