New IRC rules on number of headsails.

[B27]

Am I correct in thinking IRC rates headsails essentially on the foretriangle size and the overlap of the biggest genoa?
So adding an inner forestay and setting a second jib on it does not increase the rating?

But tacking a genoa to the bowsprit would increase the foretriangle and hence raise the rating? Or is that no so, provided the sail is 'free flying'? I.e. not hanked or a stay or with its luff in a foil on permanent rigging?

In my simple view there are two extremes of rating system. You either attempt to analyse every configuration and derive a performance prediction, or you just tax things like mast height and leave designers to design optimum rigs.

 

[flaming]

Am I correct in thinking IRC rates headsails essentially on the foretriangle size and the overlap of the biggest genoa?
So adding an inner forestay and setting a second jib on it does not increase the rating?

But tacking a genoa to the bowsprit would increase the foretriangle and hence raise the rating? Or is that no so, provided the sail is 'free flying'? I.e. not hanked or a stay or with its luff in a foil on permanent rigging?

In my simple view there are two extremes of rating system. You either attempt to analyse every configuration and derive a performance prediction, or you just tax things like mast height and leave designers to design optimum rigs.

No, IRC defines what an headsail is, in terms of draft requirements etc, and then asks for measurements of your largest headsail. Which include area, and various widths across the sail at % of the luff. They also ask for the luff length of the longest luffed sail (which is usually, but not necessarily the largest sail). Separately the rig dimensions are required, which include distance from mast to forestay and height of forestay on the mast. And of course max length of bowsprit.

There is currently no penalty for tacking a headsail anywhere. Either on the forestay or free flying. And no penalty for flying multiple at once, provided that they all measure as headsails.

 

[B27]

Measuring the foretriangle as being the triangle mast/deck/forestay seems wrong if the forestay isn't relevant to where you tack a jib.

But that's a whole different issue from a Sigma 38 deciding how many jibs/genoas to put on board.

 

[flaming]

Measuring the foretriangle as being the triangle mast/deck/forestay seems wrong if the forestay isn't relevant to where you tack a jib.

But that's a whole different issue from a Sigma 38 deciding how many jibs/genoas to put on board.

Yes, this is sort of the issue in my view. By allowing headsails to be tacked anywhere with no penalty crews, and sailmakers, have got creative.

 

[flaming]

Revalidation is now well under way....

What decisions have people made?

I've elected to declare my normal inshore inventory - i.e 3 jibs and a spin staysail, as a starting point...

 

[Daydream believer]

Whatever happened to the old " its not the winning that matters so much as the taking part"..?

That is how you tell if someone is a loser.

 

[flaming]

IRC have released a really handy tool to display all the pertinent data
Valid Boat Data - IRC Rating

It's been really interesting to see as boats revalidate how many headsails they've gone for. One of our principal opposition, a J109, has declared just 1... As a result it looks like where last year we rated one point higher, this year we will owe them 7 points.
Will certainly be interesting to see how that pans out over a season.

 

[Neeves]

Whatever happened to the old " its not the winning that matters so much as the taking part"..?

If you are not racing to win - you are not racing

Jonathan

 

[flaming]

Honestly this new headsail rating thing is getting silly.

The IRC nationals (which this year is at the Poole regatta) have a NOR that allows you to change the sails you carry every day. The normal rules that would apply without a specific NOR are that the sails have to stay the same for the whole regatta.
So if you're planning for a multi day regatta it might make sense, normally, to rate for the headsails you would need to carry to deal with anything from 5 to 30 knots. But being allowed to change sails every day... You're unlikely to see such a change over 1 day. So you should feel safe rating for, say, 2 jibs and 2 kites.
Cowes have also added such a a NOR.
Most 2 day regattas have not.
Dartmouth week have not.
Obviously if you're going offshore for any length of time, then you also want to be able to deal with a wide range of conditions.

So to be as competitive as possible at the nationals I have changed my secondary rating to be 2 jibs and 2 kites. Shaved 3 points of the rating in the process.
But we won't take that rating to Dartmouth. So we'll be rated differently in Dartmouth, despite (over the course of the regatta) having exactly the same sails available as at the nationals.

If anyone can convince me that this makes sense, makes the racing better / fairer or just cheaper....

 

[mrming]

It’s turning into a bit of a nonsense I think. We’re running with one headsail per event for now as forecasting is pretty good. Haven’t done anything more than 2 days long yet as it’s early in the season.

 

[flaming]

It’s turning into a bit of a nonsense I think. We’re running with one headsail per event for now as forecasting is pretty good. Haven’t done anything more than 2 days long yet as it’s early in the season.

But what happens if the forecast is light airs in the morning building to 20+ in the afternoon? Which is not uncommon....

 

[mrming]

But what happens if the forecast is light airs in the morning building to 20+ in the afternoon? Which is not uncommon....

The complicating factor here is that we've just got the boat and it's come with two notionally different light / medium non-overlapping jibs which aren't that different in practice. Once more headsails arrive we may end up rating for 2.

 

[flaming]

The complicating factor here is that we've just got the boat and it's come with two notionally different light / medium non-overlapping jibs which aren't that different in practice. Once more headsails arrive we may end up rating for 2.

What is the boat?

 

[mrming]

What is the boat?

I’ll DM you as my mates own it so not really my place to talk it about it publicly.