RORC

The Royal Ocean Racing Club has received strong interest for the Roschier Baltic Sea Race, with over 30 teams expected for the inaugural 630-mile offshore race which starts and finishes outside Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Contenders for Line Honours and the overall win under IRC are among the current entries, as well as passionate corinthian Finnish teams lured by the excitement of racing in home waters.

One of the pinnacle events of the IRC rating system in the UK, will take place over 10-12 June from Cowes. This year’s edition of the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s IRC National Championship will be its 24th and as usual will feature a mixed line-up of yachts from across the size and age spectrum, allowing the IRC rating system to create a level playing field between them.

Looking for a boat to race or looking for crew to join your team? The Royal Ocean Racing Club have launched an updated Crew Match portal that aims to simplify the process of matching boat owners and crew wherever they race in the world.

Following on from the UK Government’s ‘Roadmap out of lockdown’ on Monday 22nd February, the RORC Committee, working with the RYA and Government, is confident that overnight racing will return for the 2021 RORC Season’s Points Championship. Some changes will be necessary for the early part of the season, but unless the recovery from the pandemic changes, the world’s largest offshore championship will go ahead, including the 49th edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race.

The 2020 RORC Yacht of the Year, winning the Somerset Memorial Trophy is the British JPK 10.10 Jangada, owned by Richard Palmer. Racing with Jeremy Waitt as crew, Jangada was the overall winner of the RORC Transatlantic Race and winner of the Two-Handed Class for the RORC Caribbean 600. Only two other Two-Handed teams have won the award before; Shaun Murphy with Slingshot in 2006 and Nick Martin with Diablo-J in 2012.

Mid-September it may be, but conditions for the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s 2020 IRC championships felt more like June this weekend, with shorts and T-shirts conditions and allowing a full schedule of racing to be laid on by PRO Stuart Childerley and his team. The event concluded today with two windward-leeward races on the central-eastern Solent in more variable and generally lighter winds than on Friday or Saturday.

The central Solent delivered on the opening day of the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s IRC National Championship. The westerly wind started off light but built to a solid 18 knots, the September sun even putting in an appearance, as the three class fleet progressed through two windward-leeward races and one round the cans.

After a long and open discussion by the RORC Race Management team, senior members of the RORC Committee, and with advice from medical experts, it has been decided that any overnight race that the Club would run would not adhere to the UK Government guidance currently in place. As a result, the Ushant race has been cancelled and in its place will be organised a long day race in the English Channel using laid and virtual marks, starting and finishing in Cowes.

A race around the Isle of Wight on Saturday 1st August will see the return to competitive racing at the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) - the first since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The race will replace the originally scheduled Channel Race and is open to COVID-19 compliant crews following Government regulations in both the Two Handed and family/same-household classes. Race entries are required to have an IRC TCC of 0.900 and above.

The Royal Ocean Racing Club announce further cancellations and changes to some of its key events as the season progresses and the COVID-19 pandemic continues throughout April. The decision comes after continued close monitoring of Government and medical advice, and in line with guidance from World Sailing and the RYA. The RORC's intention is to adapt its race programme and courses as necessary in order to get members and competitors on the water as soon as it is possible and appropriate.