The Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association (ISORA) will trial the Irish based “Progressive ECHO” rating in all its races this season.
ISORA Chief Peter Ryan says the performance based rating will 'produce a greater spread in the results and prizes.
Most racing boats in Ireland have an ECHO rating issued with their IRC Rating for the Irish Sailing Association (ISA) but as part of the new move by the Irish–UK offshore body, UK boats are being encouraged to take part in the ECHO rating, ISORA have negotiated an initial fee for the ECHO rating of €10 for those UK boats competing in ISORA.
Over the winter, ICRA rating guru Denis Kiely re-ran all last season’s results under the ECHO rating to ensure that those boats who have not used ECHO in the past will have their appropriate performance handicap for the first race, based on their last year’s ISORA performance.
Applications for the ECHO rating should be made through ISORA.