ICRA sailors will be able to compete for World Championship IRC rating honours from 2018. Today's Irish Times Sailing Column reports on a 'breakthough' at last week's World Sailing Conference in Barcelona that has led to rival rating systems, ORC and IRC, working together towards a ‘jointly scored championships’.
Up until now cruiser-racers could race for world honours but only under ORC because World Sailing blocked an IRC title event on the basis the rating relied on a “secret element”. This week’s breakthrough came after the rule was shared with the world governing body to confirm no 'human element' was used in its computation. Afloat.ie readers will recall claim and counter claim on both rating systems following an ORC presentation at the March ICRA Conference in Limerick.
Irish sailors are at the forefront of negotiations including Dublin Bay's own Michael Boyd, the Commodore of the RORC that administrates the IRC rule. Read more in the Irish Times here.