Hahn Premium Race Week IRC Division 2 UNOFFICIAL

by Rob Kothe on 29 Aug 2005 Sail-World has decided to do what the event cannot, to unofficially score an IRC Division 2 for 2005, with a crossover between divisions at IRC rating of 1.300.

Australia’s IRC fleets are probably the best on the world scene and this year's Hamilton Island’s Hahn Premium Race Week IRC fleet ranks as one of the best regatta fleets on the Australian circuit.

In the 2005 IRC fleet there are 29 boats. Of these sixteen have been launched in the last three years, nine of them within the last 12 months and six have canting keels.

At the same time, in the same division, there are two classic wooden boats, Koomooloo, the Sydney Hobart Race handicap winner in 1968, and the Fife-designed Eun-na-mara launched in 1907. In 2001, when IMS was still king, Eun-na-mara won the IRC division here and is now sailing with carbon fibre sails.

So how does the unofficial second division look? Ray Roberts DK46 Hollywood Boulevarde won from Geoff Boettcher’s Reichel Pugh 46 Hardy’s Secret Mens Business, with Phil Coomb’s DK46 Dekadence, third.

As RORC’s IRC rating manager Mike Irwin keeps reminding owners, the IRC rating system was never designed to cope with this range of boats.

In 2004, Regatta Director Warwick Hoban split the fleet into two divisions, to try and ensure that the small boats were not overrun.

However on the eve of the regatta, after lots of discussion at the Skippers Welcome party and just 12 hours before the series started, most moved themselves from the Big Boat division into the IRC division overnight.

After Shock, Another Duchess, Wild Oats, Ichi Ban and Skandia were amongst the first boats to signal the move then the entire division voted to change. At the end of the regatta the 98 footer Skandia just beat the Beneteau 44.7 Prime Time 44, so the general feeling amongst the skippers was that IRC handicapping had handled the fleet.

Post 2004 and again months out from this year’s series, Race Director Warwick Hoban was concerned that with technology moving very fast and with the constant refinements in appendages and hull forms, the larger boats would dominate and again proposed two divisions.

He consulted widely with the IRC fleet owners, who decided as a group, to retain the combined division. This time there was no pre-event change and the regatta has had to be scored as a single division.

Three days into the regatta, the owners of the sub-50 foot, non-canting keel boats began to recognise that they were unlikely to be competitive under current IRC ratings. There was a steady stream of owners requesting the race committee to split the scoring.

However nothing could be done, mid-regatta, there is no provision in the Sailing Instructions to allow such a change.

It is clear that the views of owners have now changed and in 2006 the divisions are almost certain to be split scored.

Nick Chapman from Eun-na-mara commented this afternoon, ‘I think the main reason to have the split scoring in the future is to race like with like. Right now its apples and eggs.'

Geoff Boettcher from Hardy’s Secret Men’s Business; ‘I will definitely be asking the race organisers to split us up in the future. We need the split to increase the fun.’

Richard Hudson from Pretty Woman agreed. ‘Been talking about it on the boat, we certainly will be asking for the split for next year.’

Peter Elkington from Wedgetail mentioned, 'we did the calculations ourselves based on 1.3, it made it more interesting to compare how we were going against boats of our size.'

The unoffical divsion winner Ray Roberts commented, ‘We are really enjoyed the scrap in the under 50 foot group. It's very tough racing, great breezes and great racecourses....I believe the Australian IRC fleets as a whole are the best around. We were pleased to be the best of the smaller boats this year.

‘Last year I raced at the Rolex Big Boat series in San Francisco and I’ve just returned from the Copa del Rey Transpac 52 Regatta in Mallorca, great racing there too, but I’d have to say that Hahn Premium Race Week at Hamilton Island rivals, or is better than, anything Europe or North America has to offer.'

Final Results
Series Place Sail No Boat Handicap Series Points R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9

1 AUS8889 1 HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD 1.207 21 1 5 1 1 2 3 1 3 4

2 YC3300 2 HARDYS SECRET MENS BUSINESS 1.279 33.5 2 8 6 6 1 2 2.5 5 1

3 SM46 3 DEKADENCE 1.207 57.5 10 2 2.5 7 5 8 5 10 8

4 SM460 4 XLR8 1.292 62 4 13 12 2 3 7 8 8 5

5 B1 5 EUN NA MARA 0.998 67 8 4 4 3 4 12 21 2 9

6 SM602 6 VELOCE 1.071 71 12 9 8 8 8 15 4 4 3

7 RQ68 7 MDBS KOOMOOLOO 0.941 71 3 6 7 4 7 4 21 7 12

8 8910 8 WEDGETAIL 1.205 71.5 9 16 10 14 11 6 2.5 1 2

9 SM447 9 CLUB MARINE 1.173 73.5 16 3 14 11.5 6 5 6 6 6

10 SYD8 10 COUGAR 1.108 82 5 11 9 5 10 1 9 11 21

11 G4646 11 SHOGUN 1.206 90.5 13 17 2.5 9 9 9 7 14 10

11 HW42 12 GINGER 1.203 104 11 1 13 10 12 11 13 12 21

13 7447 13 PRIME TIME 1.115 113.5 7 12 5 11.5 15 18 21 13 11

14 545 14 PRETTY WOMAN 1.225 118 6 19 16 13 13 10 11 9 21

115 HKG1088 15 CORUM 1.097 125 14 14 11 15 14 13 14 17 13

16 B45 16 RUSH 1.228 134 18 7 15 16 21 17 12 21 7

17 40021 17 SHORT SHIPPED 1.167 147 17 10 18 17 18 16 15 15 21

18 G162 18 PROWLER 1.26 152 15 20 17 18 16 14 10 21 21

19 7590 19 INNER CIRCLE RUM 1.253 164 19 18 19 19 17 19 16 16 21

20 6522 20 MR KITE 1.263 180 20 15 20 20 21 21 21 21 21