News Archive

Yacht racing is a unique sport where vessels of different sizes and designs can compete against each other in the same race. Some designs are inherently faster than others, so achieving fairness means applying varying handicaps to individual yachts to adjust raw race times. This ensures the best sailors win, not just the fastest boats.

While nearly every weather condition can be encountered on this race, for the 40th edition of the race in June 2025 the organizers from Annapolis Yacht Club are strongly considering use of ORC's Weather Routing Scoring (WRS) to generate fair ratings for a complex course that includes three distinct segments

The Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) and VENNVIND take their partnership to the next level as ORC’s Official Technical Clothing Supplier.

Past weekend, the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) team held hosting its annual staff meeting at the iconic Monfalcone Yacht Club, where we were planning the 2025 season and refined our long-term strategy for 2025–2030.

The 2025 ORC Sportboat European Championship will be held over 11-17 May 2025 in one of the world's most iconic small boat sailing venues: Lago di Garda, Italy. The Circolo Vela Torbole in cooperation with ORC has just issued their Notice of Race and invitation to enter.

Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia, organizer of the prestigious Tre Golfi Sailing Week, is thrilled to announce that entries for the 2025 edition of the event are now open. Interested participants can register on the official website, tregolfisailingweek.com, where the Notice of Race and additional details are also available.

The Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) concluded its 2024 Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Singapore with a clear vision for the future. Building on growth and key achievements in 2024, ORC has set ambitious goals for 2025, focusing on innovation, sustainability, and global expansion.

The Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) is pleased to announce the appointment of David Bartol in a new position to help manage the growth of interest in racing small, lightweight, fast boats in the sportboat category. These boats have been immensely popular in a variety of regions around the world, yet outside of one-design formats they often struggle to have fair racing under handicap.

At the 55th ORC Congress Meeting in Singapore, the Officers were elected to lead the organization for a new four-year term of 2025-2028, effective immediately.

2024 is another successful year, with >14K certificates issued worldwide. Representatives of boat owners and sailors from the 41 nations around the world that use rating certificates from the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) met today in Singapore at the 55th edition of their annual Congress meeting.

The strength of the ORC system is in its ability to use the latest scientific and technical tools to provide what’s needed for fair racing among racing sailboats of dissimilar design. With continual investment in research and updated analyses of the fleet, this approach to handicapping is more consistent and objective than other approaches since it can use these tools to more fairly rate boat types that range widely among Monohulls, Multihulls, Superyachts and now J Class yachts too.

The 2024 edition of the Mediterranean’s most famous 600-mile offshore race was one of the most memorable on record.
Swiss Franco Niggeler's Cookson 50 KUKA 3 wins Overall ORC Category and Boccale del Mediterraneo Trophy.

October 5, 2024 - Newport, Rhode Island, USA - After six days of competitive inshore and offshore racing within three classes, two new and one returning team have been crowned ORC World Champions at the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court. These three teams demonstrated an exceptional level of preparation, practice and eventual execution to prevail after six days of intense inshore and offshore racing among the 43 entries with top-level sailors from throughout the United States and around the globe.

The final destination of the Multihull Cup 2024 Trophy went down to the wire today, with just 20 seconds deciding the outcome of what has proved to be a highly competitive and friendly encounter in Mallorca.

The fourth edition of Ibiza JoySail surpassed expectations on all levels. The largest ever number of entries with eighteen superyachts registered, the biggest superyacht to ever to take part in the event, some fantastic racing and a hospitality programme for 400 participants, sponsors and organisers.

32 suggestions were made from 9 nations to improve the world's largest measurement-based rating system. These will be discussed over November 1-5 in Singapore, where the Committee and Congress members, Staff and observers of the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) will meet at their Annual Meeting.

Right on cue, San Francisco Bay rolled out the most demanding conditions for sailors at the 60th edition of Rolex Big Boat Series at St. Francis Yacht Club. A steady 15-20 knots during the first race on Thursday continued to build through Sunday for pure thrills and some spills for the 70 boats competing.

The Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) is thrilled to announce that the ORC Double Handed World Championship 2025 has been awarded to Yacht Club Monfalcone in Italy, while the ORC Sportboat European Championship 2025 will be hosted by Yacht Club Torbole on Lake Garda, Italy.