Racing fees, what changes in ORC regulations in 2025

Good news for the ORC (Offshore Racing Congress), the most widely used compensation (rating) system for offshore boat racing in the Mediterranean, which was created with the aim of making boats of different sizes and performance compete on equal terms.

ORC, what changes in 2025

The general meeting that took place in late October in Singapore resulted in a few changes, which do not change the handicaps much so as to give stability to the rules and thus to avoid having to make substantial changes to optimize the boat’s rating with often costly operations. The ORC played along, completing some details and providing clarifications and changes to some tonnage details that had been requested by many owners and racers. But there is also substantial and interesting news for those who want to try their hand at sail racing in 2025.

Electric winches less penalized

Interesting and useful modifications for offshore boats, which are increasingly using electric winches, benefiting small boats over larger ones.

In detail, the expected penalty called “non-manual power” (assisted winches) has been modified, amounting to 0.3% for boats 10m or less in length, increasing linearly to 0.6% for lengths 18m and up. This penalty is reduced to 35% in case it is applied only to rigging and 65% in case it is applied only to sheets. Motorized cranks, and automatic spinnaker recovery systems will also be considered as “non-manual power.”

Rebate for those who use the spooler

Another accessory in use by boats that do not just participate in regattas, the jib reel, has had fair benefits. Boats that use the jib reel in regattas have a rebate now even if they use bow sails less than 110% size, that is, small jibs perhaps self-tacking. Before, the rebate was reserved only for larger jibs.

Long regattas on a level playing field between small and large

But let’s come to the big innovation that ORC has introduced to be fairer and more reliable when boats of very different sizes and performance compete in the same race. The problem ORC tries to solve is this: during a regatta, especially a long one, the wind conditions encountered by larger boats that are faster and smaller boats that are inevitably slower can be very different. These differences in weather conditions on the same race course sometimes favor the larger boats, sometimes the smaller ones. To remedy this ORC has made software that simulates boat by boat weather conditions and performance. In 2024 it was introduced in some test regattas, sometimes causing complaints of unreliability, as you can read about here. ORC for 2025 has refined the software that will be available online to all organizing clubs. Here is in detail what ORC will make available in 2025:

During the year a major boost was given to WRS (Weather Routing Scoring), applied in ORC Championships, and experimentally in some fifty regattas of various types. The system, which given a start time, a course, and a fleet of ORC-certified boats is able to have each boat “sail” on an optimized course based on the forecast, and provides a finish time, which is turned into the “rating.” Thanks to the support of Predict Wind, and ORC programmer Panayotis Papapostolou, a program was developed that can complete this very complex calculation in seconds. So far this program has been used only by ORC staff, but an online version is being developed and will be available to organizers from the beginning of next season.

In spite of the discussions that have developed about the system, and the credibility of the predictions, the system is able to provide very useful information to those running the regattas, and the result is still more accurate than the “single” number that has always been used for handicap racing, whether time on time or time on distance, produced by a formula such as the IOR, CIM, IRC or various other formulas such as the FIV rating used in the past, but still the basis of fee regattas today.

With the WRS the result is the same, a “single number” in the form of a sec/mile fee for Time on Distance or a multiplier coefficient for Time on Time, but instead of being based on a general average of conditions-which never occurs-it is the result of a “routing” done piece by piece along the course, for each boat in the race.

Best to use ORC for Classic Boat IORs.

How disappointing for those who refitted a Classic Boat from the IOR period (1970 to 1990) to see themselves lagging behind in the rankings of a regatta simply because their boat is “old” and less fast than more modern ones. But there is a solution, just create a ranking reserved for these types of boats. Then owners and crews of Classic Boat IOR will have fun with each other, among homogeneous boats. This solution is the one adopted by the Sailing Newspaper’s Vela Cup circuit, which reserves a separate ranking for Classic Boats at least 25 years old, as you can read here. Here is in detail the proposal intended for regatta organizers…because ORC is already ready to be used!

“Another proposal that emerged at the ORC meeting in Singapore is to suggest to the organizers of any ORC regatta an “IOR” class, dedicated to boats with a Series date between 1970 and 1990, the era when IOR was used as the only international handicap racing system. Many of these boats have an ORC certificate and participate in various regattas, but except in rare cases they achieve good results in the overall fleet, where much better performing boats optimized for the system excel.

A class dedicated to them could incentivize many to resume racing.”

Where are the official ORC championships in 2025

The ORC Championships program returns to Europe, with the World Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, and the European Championships in Mallorca as part of the Copa del Rey. Two other European Championships will be in Italy, the Sportboats in Torbole in spring and the “Double Handed” in Monfalcone in September. The Championships program has also been planned for 2026, with a World Championship returning to the Gulf of Naples, in Sorrento, while the European will be in Klaipeda, for the first time in Lithuania.

Read more

If you want to learn more about ORC download here The final report submitted to World Sailing can be found at this link.