New scoring system for Newport Bermuda Race

The start of the 2024 Newport Bermuda Race is on June 21, and the 53rd thrash to the Onion Patch will use the actual weather to score the race. Here’s an update from the organizing committee:

How often have you thought the other boat experienced ‘lucky’ weather?

The 2024 race will be the first Ocean Race to use Forecast – Time Correction Factor (F-TCF) as a scoring model. The intention to use F-TCF scoring was communicated in the 2024 NOR published in June (now amended), and we are sharing additional details about this innovative scoring method.

The Bermuda Race Organizing Committee (BROC) is always considering opportunities to improve the fairness of our race and a major target for improvement has been the scoring method. After careful consideration and analysis, the BROC is confident that F-TCF offers a substantial improvement in fairness and clarity over the previously used method, Performance Curve Scoring (PCS).

What is F-TCF and how does it work?

• Hours before the start of the race, a predicted elapsed time to finish for every boat will be determined using timely weather and current grib files and each boat’s polar file to determine the optimized route using Expedition.

• Within each division, a forecast – time correction factor (F-TCF) will be calculated for each boat. The F-TCF is the ratio of a scratch boat’s predicted elapsed time to complete the course, to the predicted elapsed time of each boat in the division.

• The F-TCF for every boat will be communicated to the fleet the morning of the race.

• The corrected finish time for any boat can be calculated by multiplying the F-TCF for a boat by the actual elapsed time (plus any penalties) for that boat.

• A rank order of corrected finish times by class and division will determine the order of finish for each class and division.

For a detailed explanation and frequently asked questions, click here.

Editor’s note: The race uses three rating rules to handicap the fleet:
• Offshore Racing Rule (ORR)
• Multihull Offshore Racing Rule (ORR-MH)
• International Superyacht Rule (ISYR)