2014 ORC Rules and VPP now available

The Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) now has its 2014 Rules available online at www.orc.org/rules, where a detailed summary of the changes to these rules from 2013 is also available by clicking here. These changes include several important revisions and improvements made to the ORC Rating Rules, ORC Championship Rules (the “Green Book”), and the International Measurement System (IMS).

The 2014 VPP is also available for Designer VPP subscribers from the ORC website by clicking here.

“Our technical staff has been working hard since the Annual General Meeting in November to complete this complex task, which has been unusually long this year due to several new definitions and the need to verify the internal consistency with the new VPP,” said Bruno Finzi, Chairman of ORC. “We think, however, that this delay will have been worth the wait because not only is the VPP been improved, but these new rules will also better serve sailors, designers and race and event managers in the ORC community.”

The most important innovation to the 2014 VPP and ORC rating system is a new characterization of headsails that re-defines them as being any sail with a mid-width less than 75%, with no restrictions on roach or battens. So, large masthead or fractional sails known as Code 0’s and other large overlapping headsails that are not spinnakers can now be better rated in the ORC system.

Other changes to the VPP include minor improvements to the CFD-based Residuary Resistance hydrodynamic model, a new aerodynamic treatment of downwind sails, the Offshore Single Number (OSN) is slightly re-defined, and small rating credits are given in ORCi certificates for boats with woven Dacron sails.

“A review of the test fleet with the new VPP revealed changes in GPH less than 1% for most boats,” said International Technical Committee (ITC) Chairman Alessandro Nazareth. “Yet the aero and hydro studies used to make these changes are producing good results, and we intend to carry the out more in the coming year’s research agenda.”

After a thorough review of the 2013 rules, there have been important steps forward made in both modernizing the ORC Rating Rules, but also implementing new initiatives, such as the Universal Measurement System (UMS). Changes to the Rating Rules and to IMS are primarily to make them more internally consistent with the VPP changes, and to make them more compatible with other measurement systems, such as those used in the High Performance Rule (HPR), so that they can become a stronger base from which to build the UMS.

Another change is the re-working of the Green Book under the leadership of new Offshore Classes and events Chairman Paolo Massarini, who has introduced new features to raise the quality of future ORC Championship events. These include requirements for digital entries, online crew registry, and online scoring, as well as shorter event formats for Continental championships – World Championships remain unchanged, except for allowing three overall class trophies.

“We sought to include the same high standards we applied last year at the Adria Ferries ORC World Championship in Ancona so as to continue to attract strong interest in ORC events,” said Massarini. “We want to make sure the Green Book remains relevant to producing the highest regatta standards and the highest possible quality in race and event management.”

“We hope that all our new rules will be embraced by the ORC Community over the coming years,” said Finzi. “After all: our constituents have requested these in the Committees, they have been approved in the Congress, and we will continue to build on our success in 2013 that produced a 15% increase in certificates, to over 8000 worldwide.”

Owners who want to get their ORC Club or ORCi certificates issued for 2014 are asked to contact their national Rating Office. For those wishing test certificates, the 2014 ORC VPP will be available soon at ORC’s exclusive online measurement database and test certificate resource, ORC Sailor Services.