Participation central to preference of ECHO system

After the recent Irish Cruiser Racing Association conference in Limerick, a war of words has broken out between two global leaders in yacht racing handicapping systems.

While a clash of interests may yet lead to changes in how races are sailed and scored, Ireland’s own ECHO system is emerging as an unlikely winner that is being held high as an ideal way of encouraging participation.

At the heart of the issue is how to produce fair results between yachts of varying designs, sizes, age and other variables including new technologies such as lightweight construction and sailcloths.

Until recently, Ireland has used the IRC system operated by the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) and French UNCL offshore sailing organisation. This system takes various specific measurements and calculates a handicap for a given boat that is in turn applied to every race result for the boat in a series.

Promoting participation

In addition, the Irish ECHO system is also used as a companion system that calculates a handicap based on the recent performance of a boat, in effect rewarding the effort of the crew rather than just the technical aspects of the boat and is seen as promoting participation for fun rather than pure sport exclusively.

In Limerick two weekends ago, the ORC system promoted by the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC), an international body that mirrors the RORC, was introduced to Irish sailors and representatives.

Key to the fallout since the conference was a claim that ORC has now overtaken IRC in worldwide adoption with more than 7,000 handicap certificates issued to boats while the RORC numbers have fallen sharply to under 5,000.

Not so said the RORC this week and have said that the ORC has misrepresented the figures by only quoting IRC certificates issued to the end of August of 2015.

"I fear the dissipation that might follow the introduction of a third rating system and do not believe that this is in the interest of Irish sailors," RORC commodore Michael Boyd said. In the aftermath of the recent Irish Cruiser Racing Association conference in Limerick, a war of words has broken out between two global leaders in yacht racing handicapping system.

And while a clash of interests may yet lead to changes in how races are sailed and scored, Ireland’s own ECHO system is emerging as an unlikely winner that is being held high as an ideal way of encouraging participation.

At the heart of the issue lies a century-old problem; how to produce fair results between yachts of varying designs, sizes, age and other variables including new technologies such as light-weight construction and sailcloths.

Until recently, Ireland has used the IRC system operated by the Royal Ocean Racing Club and French UNCL offshore sailing organisation. This system takes various specific measurements and calculates a handicap for a given boat that is in turn applied to every race result for the boat in a series.

In addition, the Irish ECHO system is also used as a companion system that calculates a handicap based on the recent performance of a boat, in effect rewarding the effort of the crew rather than just the technical aspects of the boat and is seen as promoting participation for fun rather than pure sport exclusively.

In Limerick two weekends ago, the ORC system promoted by the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC), an international body that mirrors the British-based RORC was introduced to Irish sailors and representatives from around the country.

Key to the fall-out since the conference was a claim that ORC has now overtaken IRC in worldwide adoption with more than 7,000 handicap certificates issued to boats while the RORC numbers have fallen sharply to under 5,000.

Not so said the RORC this week and have said that the ORC has misrepresented the figures by only quoting IRC certificates issued to the end of August of 2015.

“As an active cruiser-racer, I fear the dissipation that might follow the introduction of a third rating system and do not believe that this is in the interest of Irish sailors,” RORC Commodore Michael Boyd told the Irish Times yesterday. “We have moved to correct what we see as misrepresentations of the respective sizes of IRC and ORC, as put to the recent ICRA conference.”

Ireland is Europe’s fourth largest IRC country and last year 320 Irish boats held IRC certificates. The RORC has claimed that there are 7,721 IRC certificates issued worldwide in 2015 compared to 7,404 for the ORC equivalent.

Boyd suggests an upturn in applications for Irish certs this year due in part to the Volvo Round Ireland race, starting on 18 June followed by the new European IRC Championship at Volvo Cork Week in July.

Meanwhile, Ireland’s ECHO system has been revamped in recent years with a version known as Progressive ECHO.

By contrast to it’s early days when regional committees would meet to review individual boat’s performances and increase handicaps at will, the modern iteration leaves decisions to a computer program to adjust handicaps progressively as a boat competes in a series or a season.

Under Progressive ECHO, gone are the days of suspected unfair ‘loading’ of handicaps, possibly out of spite that ultimately undermined the credibility of the system.

Of course, no discussion about yacht handicapping would be complete without pointing-out that one-design boats - those that compete with matching hulls, sails and equipment - don’t need to be handicapped.

But that’s another story.