Take an ocean sailor, one who races on Minis, Class 40s or 9.50s, one who is used to playing on equal terms in the waves against boats similar if not equal to his own. Take it, and stick it in a regatta where the rankings are compiled using compensated times. You will drive him crazy. From his point of view, it is an absurd world, a sail too different. Take a look at this video showing the “confusion” of Michele Zambelli and Luca Tosi, oceanic sailors who decided to take part in the Rolex Middle Sea Race (608 miles starting and arriving in Valletta, Malta, after circumnavigating Sicily counterclockwise via the Aeolian Islands, the Egadi Islands, Pantelleria and Lampedusa) in doubles on Zambelli’s Class 9.50 Illumia12.
“BUT HOW THE HELL ARE WE?”
Once the two of them approach Lampedusa, manage to connect to the Internet with their smartphones and view positions and compensation on the Middle Sea website, they do not understand who is in front and who is behind. They take it as a laugh with their usual sympathy, and by the way, for the record, although they finished second in real mea their category, behind a Solaris 42, they finished fourth in IRC x2. A Class 9.50, in terms of fees, pays so much. The comment of one of their followers on Facebook sums it up best: “Welcome to the frustrating world of ocean-going boats forced into the IRC.”
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THE IRC (AND ORC) SYSTEM IN BRIEF
The IRC compensation system is the evolution of the CHS. This is a standard based in its simplified version on autonomous yacht measurement-as is the case with the ORC Club (which eliminates the expense of having an official tiller involved). Again, as in the ancient CHS, the mathematical formula held by the British and French offices is secret. The ORC on the other hand, the direct heir to the old IMS system, is a product of the increasingly important development of predictive software born with the VPP, and takes into account, among many other factors, stability (righting tendency, or transverse moment), friction, longitudinal moment (or pitching tendency), sail plan, mast drag, materials of construction, maximum beam, depth, crew weight, and differences in boat performance as wind strength changes. (from wikipedia)
