ORC Measuring In More, Smaller Boats. Three Classes for Protection Island Race

Over the weekend of April 22-23 US Sailing Head Measurer (and PNW rigger for many years) Chris Tutmark got out his measuring tape (and more) to bring more boats into the ORC handicapping fold.

Tutmark explains the ORC progress being made: “There are a bunch of smaller boats in the processing queue- Pell Mell, Moonshine, Scheme (Pyramid 30), Blur (B-25) a J109 well as J111s along with a number of boats signed up for VI 360- J99s, Grand Soleil 40, Cal 39, C&C 115, J120, Cal 40,  and a Club Swan 42

“For production boats like J109s, J35s, J122s and the like once we have an application along with crew weight and sail dimensions we can generate a certificate pretty simply and quickly since there are a good number of examples already in the ORC system.”

Fittingly, the measurement fest was followed by Seattle Yacht Club’s Protection Island Race on April 29 which featured 16 boats in three ORC classes.

Alex Simanis took this shot aboard class winner Rush. Lots of downwind in this race!

It will be particularly interesting to see how disparate boats correct out on each other in a variety of conditions. Currently there are no ORC-targeted designs in the region, and it’s up for discussion as to whether or not those exist right now.

One thought on “ORC Measuring In More, Smaller Boats. Three Classes for Protection Island Race

  • May 10, 2023 at 11:11 am
    Permalink

    For what it’s worth, calculating the corrected elapsed times for boats in Class 2 of the Protection Island Race using PHRF-NW handicaps show a much more competitive range of differences. Two examples: the J-111 Hooligan would have finished only 58sec behind the winner (instead of 11:51 under ORC) and the total range of corrected elapsed times under PHRF-NW was significantly tighter (41:50 compared to 55:46 under ORC).

    Reply

Leave a Reply