IRC and Caravans

Hi there,
Please dont take the following the wrong way but i reckon a discusssion needs to be had about where the rules are headed and whether it is actually in the best interest of the future of the sport. I do not mean to single out anyone just found this forum and welcome peoples input who are no doubt smarter than I am....so here goes....
Just completed an IRC regatta in Australia and got our asses handed to us by three French production boats I was wondering when a rule will come along that will reward boats that are up with the times, use faster easier, asymmetric kites and generally appeal to the young up and comers of the sport.
I have done Hobart on a beach ball and so been down the "sail a boat that rates" route as well. But just thinking out loud so many of the Euro production caravans are bought for the rating. Wouldn't it be cool if for a similar outlay an owner could get a boat that actually got up and boogied and also offered a chance to win! Somewhere something is wrong we spend money on cruising boats that only ever race and a lot of that money is going overseas while the local manufacturers are all shutting up shop. I have a dream that one day I can go yachting on a locally built and designed boat that goes upwind and is a little scary downwind at times that I can take a young guy out from the dinghy classes and he actually might consider turning up next week because A. He got a decent result and B. he had a great time doing it. Any thoughts greatly appreciated.....

 

Race one design.
Race sportboat class.
Or, how about instead of worrying about getting a trophy just race the boat you enjoy, get comfort in knowing you did the best you could to get all the performance out of it and don't worry about how you placed. It's just a yacht race, it's not like it's important.

 

You wouldn't expect to win a series if you banged the left hand side on every beat and run, so why would you expect to win a series if you bang the left hand corner on design?

But you know, is there any chance the beach balls were just better sailed? I know sod all about leadmine racing, but a fair amount about dinghy handicap racing, and I can tell you there that the handicap is not nearly as big a factor as people like to think. The best sailed boats almost always win.

 

When the 49er came out , a whole gang at my local sailing club took to them. At present there are no 49ers, but the Snipe fleet has grown.

Think about it.

 

I had to google Snipe dinghy to see what they look like, maybe they appeal to a larger number of people, you can probably finish a race with out being a "switched on" athlete & compete at any level with an old thrasher you got for a few hundred or a new one at whatever cost. They look conservative & comfortable but would be heaps fun in some breeze, the best part of racing is the camaraderie & post race BS & beers, a boat that provides gunnel to gunnel interaction is all you need. I did some ocean racing for a while but it took me away from family for too long, much more fun to thrash around for a couple of hours & talk it up at the end with cold one. Haven't been racing for a while but go in some races for my employer- in this we participate but don't compete which is still a great day out. Jeff.

 

The talent is high in the Snipe. The story goes like this...young guy races gran prix, perhaps Olympics, wrapped in carbon fiber, fully sponsored, then comes back home, gets a job, joins the real world... and competes in the snipe class.

For sailors the most import thing is..sailing back home against your mates.

Once all the gee whizz, look how fast im going in my Youtube video ! wears thin, they get back to sailing.

No sponsor needed.

 

Code, couldn't it be said that from one point of view the "beach balls" ARE definitely up with the times. That is, if you looked at long term trends it seems that there has been a move towards imported cruiser/racers and away from locally produced racers. And the sheer number of beachballs that are being produced, even in areas where IRC is not used, could show that they ARE where "the times" have headed, couldn't it?

On a different note; a bunch of years back I went through this with Mike from the IRC RORC rating office. He pointed out that IRC began as a cruiser/racer rule in IOR days and that there have been repeated failed efforts to launch a "raceboat" rule since then. Arguably, the market has spoken and "the times" could be said to be against raceboats.

Mike also said (as he has said to others) that IRC is designed to cater for the majority of IRC owners. The figures show that in the small to medium size, most owners want dual-purpose cruiser/racers (even where IRC is not a big factor) and therefore IRC caters to them. In the big boat market, as people note, guys have lots of money and therefore don't need a dual purpose boat and don't need the resale advantages and therefore IRC is tilted to favour what the market wants. Arguably, the popularity of the GP26/33/42/TP52 bears that out.

It would be interesting to talk to Robert Hick; his little Toecutter did well in the IRC nats a bunch of years back and was a nice compromise between GP style speed and IRC rating, but he also once told me that a small boat would never be fully competitive on IRC.

In some ways, the Beach ball type may be more effective. After all, a "raceboat" assy is normally a fair bit larger than a "beachball" symmetrical kite, isn't it? Arguably, you should be taxed on area and if people choose to have a much bigger sail that doesn't allow them to sail deep angles then it's an inefficient sail and they SHOULD be penalised. I was lucky enough to talk to Russ Bowler about the original Beachball design and it was interesting how they sought efficiency by unwinding the design spiral, reducing cost. Maybe that IS the sort of thing a rule should be encouraging?

Where there any conditions at FoS Div B (which is where I assume you were) when the GP and Mac were competitive? Black Betty and General Lee appear to be doing OK in WA; wonder if it's the conditions or the competition?