Sailing Competitions - Sail Race

The International Sailing Federation

"From its inception in Paris in October 1907, the governing body for the sport of sailing was known as the International Yacht Racing Union. On 5 August 1996, the IYRU changed its name to the International Sailing Federation (ISAF).

The International Yacht Racing Union (IYRU) evolved from the need for racing sailors to have a uniform set of rules and measurement standards. Since then IYRU/ISAF has developed a system of rules and measurement that are used world-wide in all sailing events.

The International Sailing Federation is officially recognised by the International Olympic Committee as the governing authority for sailing world-wide.

As such, ISAF is responsible for promotion of the sport internationally, managing sailing at the Olympic Games, developing the International Yacht Racing Rules and Regulations for all sailing competitions and the training of judges, umpires and other administrators, the development of the sport around the world, as well as representing sailors in all matters concerning the sport..." Learn more

"US SAILING was originally organized as the North American Yacht Racing Union (NAYRU) on October 30, 1897. The founding members were the Inter-Lake Yachting Association, New York Racing Association, Pacific Inter-Club Yacht Association, Yacht Racing Association of Long Island Sound, Yacht Racing Association in Massachusetts, and the Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club.

The organization's original purpose was to encourage and promote yacht racing and to unify the racing and rating rules in the United States and Canada and throughout the yachting world..." Learn more about US Sailing

College Sailing
"College sailing began on an informal, club basis in the 1890's, and organized racing started in 1928. It has grown to include more than 200 active colleges, and racing now occurs on every weekend during fall and spring seasons and on many weekends during the winter. It is a truly coeducational sport, and it has proved itself the best incubator for the development of racing skills. Former college sailors have always numbered significantly among Olympic medallists and America's Cup competitors.

Many colleges that race also offer excellent and extensive recreational and instructional programs to members of their communities and, in a number of cases, to the general public. Education and training have been the corner stones of the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA), the governing authority, since its inception. The introduction of novices to the sport of sailing and the providing of opportunities for the recreational sailor has often prompted colleges and universities to offer more extensive and significant support to programs than would have been the case without these services. MIT, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, College of Charleston, and the University of California at Irvine are particularly notable, for at each of these institutions many hundreds of students, faculty and staff participate. The vast majority of college sailing is done in double and single handed dinghies, but some programs do have intermediate sloops, offshore and cruising boats, or sailboards to offer their members.

The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) is the governing authority for sailing competition at colleges and universities throughout the United States and in some parts of Canada. There are seven District Associations that schedule and administer regattas within their established geographic regions:

Middle Atlantic (MAISA), Midwest (MCSA), New England (NEISA), Northwest (NWICSA), Pacific Coast (PCCSC), South Atlantic (SAISA), and South-Eastern (SEISA)..." Learn more about the College Sailing

"The RORC is recognised as the premier organiser of racing for offshore yachts, including the internationally famous Rolex Fastnet Race and Rolex Commodores' Cup"

Learn more about the Royal Ocean Racing Club

Introduction to IRC

"IRC is a rating rule to handicap different designs of keelboats allowing them to race together. Each boat’s rating (her ‘handicap’) is calculated using measurements of the boat; her length, weight, draft, sail area, etc. The resulting time corrector, the boat’s ‘TCC’, is her handicap. After a race, each boat’s elapsed time (the time she has taken to complete the course) is multiplied by her TCC to calculate her corrected time (her race time making allowance for the characteristics of the boat). The boat with the shortest corrected time is the winner of the race..."

"... IRC is for keelboats of all size and shapes
IRC is aimed at a very wide range of keelboats of all sizes and shapes including modern production cruisers and cruiser/racers through dedicated one-off race boats, older cruisers and racers to classic yachts and superyachts. IRC is continually developed to encompass new developments in both cruisers and racers while at the same time protecting the interests of the bulk of the fleet.

IRC is a permissive rule
It is open to all types, sizes and ages of boats. IRC permits features such as asymmetric spinnakers, bowsprits, water ballast, canting keels, ‘code zero’ headsails, etc, and deals with these features as equitably as possible alongside more conventional boats.

IRC is a secret rule
The methods used for the calculation of IRC TCCs are kept secret by the IRC administrators. This prevents designers taking advantage of the rule when designing new boats and very substantially increases the competitive lifetime of IRC rated boats. As a result, boats of all ages and types win races under IRC. Everything from classics through IOR designs to modern cruisers, cruiser/racers, and racers.

IRC is a simple rule.
IRC is structured to be as simple as possible for both sailors and race administrators: there is no requirement for boats to be officially measured. IRC accepts owner declaration of a boat’s measurements. All an owner needs to do is fill in the application form and send it to us..."

Learn more about the IRC

"The Women's International Match Racing Association was formed in 1996 to promote, coordinate and supervise women's international match-race sailing and support the inclusion of a Women's Match-Racing Event in the Olympic Games. These goals are still forefront in our focus..."

Learn more about WIMRA

"The roots of the ORC International handicap rule lie in the history of the International Measurement System (IMS), whose history is described in the IMS section of this web site. Suffice to say, it is the handicap rule of choice where the highest standards of objectivity, scientific accuracy, international application, and flexible scoring options are desired by race organizers. No other rating rule in the world today can match these features.

ORC International will continue to use the IMS platform of multiple modules from measurement to scoring. Boats required to have ORC International certificates will have to be measured using all the criteria listed in IMS.

However, the software for the most important part - the Velocity Prediction Program (VPP) - has been completely rewritten, with major functions reviewed and recent submissions and research results implemented to produce a more powerful and flexible software package. As more data is reviewed and tested, and as the sport evolves in its technological development, ORC International will also evolve to maintain its standards of accuracy and fairness.

As such, this is the most sophisticated and modern VPP-based rating product available in the world today, and is intended for use at championship-level events where the highest standards of accuracy are desired to produce the best results..." Learn more

The Race

"Created by the French sailor Bruno Peyron, The Race started on 31st December 2000, as a way to celebrate our arrival in the third millennium with a global ocean race. The Race was the first race around the world without limits, in other words it was open to boats without any size restrictions. The total freedom that was given to designers led to the birth of a new generation of sailboats, maxi-multihulls, now known as the G-Class.

For the first edition of The Race, the first giant multihulls ever built set out from the start in Barcelona to sail around the world via the three capes (Good Hope, Leeuwin and the Horn) before crossing the finish line in Marseilles.

The reference time for The Race was set by the New Zealander Grant Dalton aboard the maxi-catamaran Club Med, which completed the voyage in 62 days, 56 minutes and 33 seconds."

Learn more about The Race

The RORC Fastnet

"Starting from The Royal Yacht Squadron line in Cowes, yachts will race on a course of approx 608 miles via the Fastnet Rock to the finish line at the western end of the breakwater in Plymouth Harbour.

Distances between notable points on the course
Cowes – Needles 16 nm
Needles – Portland Bill 34 nm
Portland – Start Point 54 nm
Start Point – Lizard 60 nm
Lizard – Lands End 22 nm
Land's End – Fastnet 170 nm
Fastnet Rock – Scillies 154 nm
Scillies – Lizard 51 nm
Total = 608 nautical miles..."

Learn more about The RORC Fastnet

The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race

" will be conducted on the waters of Sydney Harbour, the Tasman Sea, Storm Bay and the Derwent River.

Over the past 65 years, the Rolex Sydney Hobart has become an icon of Australia’s summer sport, ranking in public interest with such national events as the Melbourne Cup horse race, the Davis Cup tennis and the cricket tests between Australia and England. No yachting event in the world attracts such huge media coverage – except, of course, the America’s Cup and the Volvo Ocean Race – than does the start on Sydney Harbour. And the others only happen every four or five years.

Over those years, the Rolex Sydney Hobart and Cruising Yacht Club of Australia have had marked influence on international ocean yacht racing. The club has influenced the world in race communications and sea safety, maintaining the highest standards of yacht construction, rigging and stability for ocean racing yachts. The club’s members have also fared well in major ocean racing events overseas, with victories in the Admiral’s Cup, Kenwood Cup, One Ton Cup, the Fastnet Race and the BOC Challenge solo race around the word, not to mention the America’s Cup..."

Learn more about The Rolex Sydney Hobart

"The Volvo Ocean Race is an exceptional test of sailing prowess and human endeavour which has been built on the spirit of great seafarers - fearless men who sailed the world’s oceans aboard square rigged clipper ships more than a century ago.

Their challenge back then was not a race as such, but recording the fastest time between ports. This meant new levels of pride for themselves and great recognition for their vessel.

The spirit that drove those commercial sailors along the web of trade routes, deep into the bleak latitudes of the Southern Ocean and around the world’s most dangerous capes, emerges today in the form of The Volvo Ocean Race, a contest now seen as the pinnacle of achievement in the sport.

The first edition of this sporting adventure came in the wake of two remarkable sailors of the last century, Sir Francis Chichester and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, men who drew worldwide acclaim for amazing solo voyages around the planet. Inevitably their success led to talk in international sailing circles of a race around the world for fully crewed yachts. It became a reality in 1973 with The Whitbread round the World Race, the longest, most demanding and perilous sporting contest the world had known..."

Learn more about The Volvo Ocean Race

About the boats
Just a few short years ago the idea of new breed of offshore yachts was conceived -an affordable performance monohull designed around a simple box rule. The concept was to use modern design-technology to limit the cost of an offshore racing class of yacht - the Class40 was born.

Exotic materials such as carbon fibre are only allowed for the mast and boom; underwater appendages are limited in their number;keels must be fixed not canting; metal materials are non-exotic and even the number of sails allowed onboard and their materials are strictly controlled

Today close to 100 Class40 boats have been built and the Class Association arranges an enticing calendar of events throughout each year, ranging from inshore regattas to trans-ocean races and now, with the Global Ocean Race 2011-12, an official around the world race.

Some additional safety features are enforced for the Global Ocean Race 2011-12, a race in which all the boats must adhere to Category 0 offshore racing regulations. The principle additions are extra watertight bulkheads and extra safety equipment plus each boat must pass a self-righting test from an upside down position."

... Learn more about The Global Ocean Race

The Vendee Globe

"In theory, the Vendée Globe is an utterly simple affair. Its fundamental principles come down to a few sentences, compared to which even the roughest logbook would seem sophisticated. A sailing race around the world, for singlehanders, without any stopover. That’s it. In theory at least, because beyond these words start great stories

Official supplier of legends since 1989, this race has impressed the maritime world and the public in general, to the point where even the strongest superlatives seem unable to define it. The sea also has its mythical summit, created 15 years ago by a sailor, two times winner around the world (BOC Challenge, with stopovers), who refused to rest on his laurels

Philippe Jeantot wished to go further, to give a new dimension to the world of maritime adventure… “Time, he wrote, is a necessary factor to attain perfect harmony with one’s sailboat. We had to forget about stopping. A round-the-world race, without stopovers or assistance, such were the conditions to reach the desired communion. For the first edition, we set off towards the unknown. None of the 13 sailors who crossed the starting line in 1989 had the experience of a solo journey exceeding 100 days...."

Learn more about The Vendee Globe

La Route du Rhum Organisation:

La Route du Rhum – La Banque Postale 2010 is organised by PROMOVOILE, a subsidiary to the Simplified Joint Stock Company PEN DUICK."

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