27 May 2022
The
Holy Grail, the Fountain of Youth, the perfectly equitable rating
formula for racing sailboats. Three things not yet discovered. But
that didn’t, and won’t likely ever, stop Indiana Jones, Juan Ponce
de León, and sailors around the world—respectively—from trying.
In 2020, the New York Yacht Club turned to ORC to handicap its
performance racing fleet. This summer will mark the Club’s third
season with the rule, which is administered by the Offshore Racing
Congress. The ORC Rule is managed in the United States by the
Offshore Office of US Sailing. The registration numbers for the ORC
fleet for the upcoming 168th edition of the New York Yacht Club’s
Annual Regatta speak to the rule’s growing acceptance in the United
States. With two weeks remaining until the first start of North
America’s oldest annual regatta on Friday, June 10, the ORC fleet
stands at 40 boats, ranging in length from 33 to 74 feet.
“The first Annual Regatta in 1846 utilized an early handicap formula
to score the boats and so has every non-wartime edition since,” says
Peter Cummiskey, the event chair for the regatta. “It’s never easy
to get sailors to embrace a new rating rule, so we’re very pleased
to see how many boats are lining up to compete under ORC. We
anticipate some great racing.”
The New York Yacht Club’s Annual Regatta was first sailed on the
Hudson River on July 16 and 18, 1846. A similar competition the
previous year was called a Trial of Speed. With a few exceptions for
world wars and other global crises, the event has been held every
year since. For the majority of its existence, the Annual Regatta
was raced on waters close to New York City. Since 1988, however, the
event has been sailed out of the Harbour Court clubhouse in Newport,
R.I., and has settled into the current three-day format, which
includes a race around Conanicut Island on Friday, two days of buoy
or navigator-course racing on Saturday and Sunday and nightly social
activities on the grounds of the historic Harbour Court mansion. The
168th Annual Regatta is sponsored by Hammetts Hotel, Safe Harbor
Marinas and Helly Hansen.
The return of the Maxi 72 class to the Annual Regatta for the first
time since 2016 will add a shot of speed and glamour to the regatta.
Three of the 72-foot ocean thoroughbreds will compete in this year's
Annual Regatta. Hap Fauth’s Bella Mente program has been mainstay on
the maxi yacht circuit for well over a decade and has recorded
plenty of significant victories. But at Les Voiles de St. Barths in
April, it was Jim Swartz’s Vesper (above) that had the edge in a
two-boat battle, winning four of five races. George Sakellaris’
Proteus will join that duo for the Annual Regatta.
“It’s incredibly exciting,” says Swartz. “Match racing Bella Mente
in big seas at St. Barths was as fun as it gets. Adding a third
player will take it to the next level.”
In the other classes, the speeds may be lower, but the fleets will
be bigger, and the competition equally as intense. Among the
newcomers to ORC this year is John Brim, who will hit the line with
his Italia 11.98 Rima98, which he acquired earlier this spring. Brim
is no stranger to handicap racing, having owned a 48-footer,
60-footer and a 55-footer, each of which he raced under the IMS and
IRC rules more than a decade ago. Of late, he’s focused on
one-design racing—on standard windward-leeward courses—in the J/70
and IC37 classes.
Last summer, during the New York Yacht Club’s Annual Cruise, he
realized maybe he was missing something. “I remembered the fun of
going point-to-point,” says Brim. “I realized that has been a
missing dimension because I’d been sailing the last eight years in
J/70s and a couple of years the IC37s. I said, ‘This is fun.’ It was
fun to also compute who won at the end of the day using the ORC
handicaps. It was something different after many, many years of
one-design sailing.”
Brim is also excited that the boat (a sister ship is at left) will
allow him to sail with a largely amateur crew. “It’s not a full-on
race boat,” he said. “I’m going to back to where I used to be and
I’m looking forward to it.” Brim maintains his ambitions for the
season are modest. But the Italia brand does have a reputation for
success under ORC, so no one should be surprised to see Rima98
competing for class honors at the Annual Regatta. At the Alexela
2021 ORC World Championship in Tallinn, Estonia, last August, Italia
11.98 yachts finished second, sixth and ninth in the 62-boat Class C
fleet.
Racing in the 168th Annual Regatta begins on Friday, June 10, with a
race around Conanicut Island starting. Two days of buoy or
navigator-course racing will follow on June 11 and 12.
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