Milan, Italy – Rating offices, race officers, and sailors around the world will now have access to the 2015 ORC Rules used by the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) for its rating system and related products. The ORC technical staff has also loaded this year's VPP into the ORC Manager software, so valid 2015 certificates can now be issued by national rating offices, while ORC International and ORC Club test certificates, ORC Speed Guides, and ORC Target Speeds can now be obtained in the publicly accessible Sailor Services system.
Available now in eight languages, Sailor Services also now offers a single payment option, where 10 credits can now be purchased for €12. This is a cost-savings benefit to all those who do not use the system more than a few times for the most popular items that cost 10 credits: test certificates and Target Speeds. There are over 77,000 measurement records in the ORC database for users to find their boat design and use as given, or modify to suit their interest. Find out more at www.orc.org/sailorservices.
The texts of the 2015 International Measurement Rules (IMS), ORC Rating Rules, and the ORC Championship Classes and Events Rules (the “Green Book”) are also posted and available at www.orc.org/Rules. The ORC VPP Documentation will be available soon, but the 2015 ORC VPP is available now and has numerous improvements in hydrodynamics and aerodynamics, as well as the ability to rate boats with multiple water ballast tanks, an improvement in the formulation of rated righting moment, and a new implied wind calculation method for Performance Curve Scoring. Go to www.orc.org/vpp for more information about how the VPP works, and to www.orc.org/dvp to download the 2015 Designer VPP (DVP).
Take note that the discount period to the annual subscription to the ORC DVP is expiring very soon: after tomorrow, 15th January 2015, the price of the DVP will rise from €300 to €500. The DVP includes the 2015 VPP as well as any upgrades if that are needed and when they becomes available. Upon receipt of payment, new subscribers will receive credentials to log on to the DVP Subscribers web page, while credentials of existing subscribers will be renewed. From this DVP page the user can download the installation software package and regularly check for updates for one year of both the VPP core and the editing and management interfaces.
These innovations and improvements in the new rules were proposed by the International Technical Committee (ITC) and other ORC committees, and approved at the Congress meeting in November. They are summarized at www.orc.org/minutes/AGM2014Changes.pdf.
Changes in 2015 ORC International and ORC Club certificates include listing the boat's rated length using the Class Division Length (CDL) scheme to be used at ORC championship events, and the display of Doublehanded ratings are now an optional display for each rating office to select for certificates they issue.
The net changes in ratings for the 2015 fleet compared to those from 2014 is minimal, less than 0.5% for most boat types. The ORC test fleet list with GPH's and CDL's is available at www.orc.org/news/2014/TestRun2015.pdf, but check with your rating office or run a test in Sailor Services on your boat to see what your specific rating will be for the 2015 season.
“Our technical staff has been extremely busy in the last few weeks getting not only the ORC Rules and VPP ready, but also the new ORC SuperYacht Rule (ORCsy) to be ready for delivery soon too,” said Bruno Finzi, Chairman of ORC. “Every year the ORC Rules getbetter from the efforts of the ITC and feedback from our constituents, so to deliver these for the first of the year is a great achievement. We hope our users will appreciate the improvements made to this year's system, and wish everyone a successful season in 2015.”
For more information on ORC and other ORC rules, classes and events, visit www.orc.org.
