IRC – Celebrating 30 years

The 30th Anniversary of the introduction of IRC under its original name, CHS, will be celebrated in 2014.

The Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) and L’Union Nationale pour la Course au Large (UNCL) are delighted to have reached this major milestone in providing fair and simple ratings for racing sailors around the world.

CHS was first introduced in 1984 to offer a rating system appropriate to the cruiser/racers of the day that were disenfranchised by the IOR rule. CHS grew dramatically through the 1980s and 1990s before being re-named IRC in 1999.

IRC was granted International Rating System status by the International Sailing Federation in 2003 and continued to grow in popularity, reaching a peak of 7,740 boats rated in 2008.

Today, IRC remains the rating rule of choice for close to 7,000 boats of almost every shape, size, style and age imaginable, and for a huge number of high profile and many less well-known events in approaching 40 countries around the world.