The Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) has announced its publication of the inaugural edition of the ORC Race Management Guide.
The 24-page manual “contains ideas learned from decades of successful race management experience in events that range from local club contests to world championships held all over the world”.
While written to assist race managers, the guide is also expected to be useful to owners and sailors for improving their understanding of how ORC’s science-based handicap rating system works in theory and practice.
“Every year we work with organisers of world and continental championships to maintain the highest standards for their events, and we thought it would be useful to gather what we have learned into this book,” said Hans-Eckhard ‘Ecky’ von der Mosel, who is based at Kieler Yacht Club in Germany, host of the 2014 ORC World Championship.
“We also realised we need to help those who are not at this level but also want to provide fair and fun racing to the sailors. It has taken some time, but we have this now completed and I am very happy with the results of all the work, and very thankful for the various input from all our colleagues and specialists.”
The comprehensive guide is divided into three broad categories — Event Structure, Scoring and Best Practices —and is focused on how these rules apply to racing with handicap ratings.
While it is not intended to train race managers on the basic skills of how to lay a course, start a race or implement course changes (as these skills are assumed), it should nonetheless be a useful reference for both new and experienced race managers to improve their game.
The guide is also expected to evolve in content along with the trends in the sport and as ORC rules and guidelines change, so as that new content will be added with new editions that are offered on a regular basis.
A simplified Quick Guide version is also anticipated for those race organisers who are brand new to ORC, and this will follow soon.
“A major role for ORC is not only developing accurate and transparent technical tools for fair racing,” said Bruno Finzi, chairman of ORC, “but also the guidance through experience on how best to use these tools.
“I congratulate Ecky, his committee and the Staff for working so hard to pull together this knowledge and express this in this important new book. We hope it is well-received in the racing community.”
The ORC Race Management Guide is available for download at www.orc.org/rules and more on ORC rating systems, ORC certificates and events can be found at www.orc.org
