Offshore Racing Congress announces 2013 event calendar

by Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) on 29 Dec 2012 In the past few weeks of 2012, rating offices and event organizers around the world have been sending in their dates so that the 2013 ORC Calendar of Events is now available at www.orc.org/calendar. To date, there are 121 national and international regattas listed in sixteen countries, with more expected in the coming weeks as organizers and sailors do their planning for the 2013 season, while in the southern hemisphere their summer season is already well underway.

In the coming year the most important event for ORC will be the 2013 ORCi World Championship, sanctioned by ISAF as the Offshore World Championship, which in 2013 will be held in Ancona, Italy over June 21-29. This event will feature a week-long mix of inshore and offshore racing on the Adriatic coast from the event venue based at Marina Dorica. As in the last two years, the number of entries is expected to exceed 100 boats, and even now there are already 28 entries from seven countries on three continents.

Another major event for ORC is the ORCi European Championship 2013 to be held in Sandhamn, Sweden over August 3-10 and hosted by the Royal Swedish YC (KSSS). This regatta will also have a mix of inshore and offshore racing conducted on the Baltic coast east of Stockholm in the beautiful Swedish Archipelago. There has been strong initial interest in this event as well, with 21 entries from seven countries pre-registered from throughout Europe.

Besides these and other ORC championship regattas, there are several other major international races and regattas using ORC ratings and scoring. These include the Circuito Atlantico Sur Rolex Cup in Argentina and Uruguay, the North Sea Regatta in the Netherlands, the Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta in Italy, the Giraglia Rolex Cup in Italy and France, Rolex Ilhabella Sailing Week in Brazil, the 32nd Copa del Rey Audi Mapfre in Spain, the Rolex Middle Sea Race in Malta, and the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race in Australia.

And in addition to these established high-profile events, there are other new events in new countries to use ORC. For the first time ORCi will be used in Denmark at the Aarhus Big Boat Race as well as the Big Boat Challenge in Kerteminde as part of a new western Baltic series that also includes Kieler Woche and concludes at the ORC German Championship in Warnemunde. The Royal Danish YC (KDY) will also be using ORCi at a new international offshore teams event in Bornholm called the Royal Ocean Cup.

And ORC will be also be used for the first time in China at the Chinese Yachting Association's City Clubs Open Regatta International in Qingdao.

Organizers who have not yet submitted their events to the 2013 ORC Calendar are asked to do so as soon as possible, and to also report photos and results from their events to be included on the ORC News page by sending them to media@orc.org.

For more information on ORC rules, ratings, products and services, visit the ORC website.