For much of the recorded history of grand-prix rating-rule competition, from the CCA rule to IOR to IMS, the path to major international success was paved with gold. There were few substitutes for the money required to research, design and build the fastest boat. Custom designs and builds remain in the majority among the biggest boats competing in ORC 0 at the 2024 ORC World Championship at the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court in Newport, R.I., September 27 to October 5. In Classes B and C, however, where the boats are almost entirely under 40 feet long, every entry is a production-built boat.

"In this sector of the sport, the vast majority of boats that race are series-built, and we see this in Classes B and C in all major ORC championship events," says Matt Gallagher, the event chair for the 2024 championship and a member of the ORC Congress. "Every year the ORC rating system is developed and refined; the era of needing customized optimizations to do well in these classes has been over for many years. A validation of this is seen on the podiums of ORC championships; the teams that are well-prepared, well-sailed and generally without any special design tricks emerge on top with good results.”
 
Since 1969, the Offshore Racing Congress has been a world leader in providing a scientific and transparent rating system used to create fair racing among a broad variety of boat types, from sportboats to superyachts. Since 1999, ORC has organized annual ORC World Championships and other inshore and offshore racing events sanctioned by World Sailing, with recent events attracting over 100 entries from dozens of countries around the world. The 2024 ORC World Championship will be held in Newport, R.I., and hosted by the New York Yacht Club. Registration and measurement starts on September 27, with racing kicking off on Monday, September 30, and finishing on Saturday, October 5. The ORC World Championship is sponsored by Helly Hansen, Safe Harbor Marinas, Peters & May and Hammetts Hotel. The ORC World Championship will serve as the culmination of the Road to the 2024 ORC World Championship series, which will encompass four regattas in Newport, R.I., from June through October.

Among the boats registered for ORC C at the upcoming world championships are two great examples of the different paths that can lead to a top finish, Brad Gibbs JPK 1030 Rumble and Cory and Mark Sertl’s Farr 30 Das Blau Max.
 
After nearly two decades abroad, Gibbs settled in Providence a decade ago, embarked on a second career in education and re-engaged with the sport of sailing—he was an All American at Brown University in the early 1990s. He raced a J/70, then battled to restore an aging 40-foot cruiser/racer. A successful and enjoyable charter of a Sunfast 3300 for the 2023 Marion Bermuda Race revealed his future in the sport, and he set out to find his next boat.
 
“I was teaching in Madrid, and I had some down time and started scrolling online yacht brokerages and saw a JPK 1030 down in Mallorca,” he says. “I said, ‘I’ll just pop down and check out the boat.’ I loved it, and it all came together because the 52 Super Series was shipping all its boats to Newport through Peters & May and I was able to sneak the boat onboard. 
 
“It’s a lot like the Sunfast in that the designer had submitted this design when they were contemplating the doublehanded offshore class for the Olympics. It’s a big dinghy, and I think I can get 80 percent of the way up the learning curve quickly.”
 
This summer, climbing that learning curve aboard the 34-foot Rumble has meant an eclectic regatta schedule including the New York Yacht Club’s Annual Regatta and Annual Cruise and the upcoming Ida Lewis Distance Race. The ORC World Championship will be a step or two up in terms of competitiveness.
 
“What a great opportunity,” he says. “How often go we get a world event like this? I chartered an IC37 for the 2020 National Championship, which was also in October. It’s a fantastic time to be sailing in and around Narragansett Bay.
 
“I love the format. I think the strength of this boat will be the offshore stuff. Around the buoys, we may not hang with the other boats in our class. In the right conditions, particularly if we’re reaching, this boat has a lot of legs.”

The Sertl family purchased a Farr 30 during the summer of 2020, during the height of the COVID pandemic. The family has been raced the boat each summer since, incrementally learning how to make what was once a hugely popular one-design keelboat competitive under PHRF and ORC.

“How easy the thing sails,” says Mark Sertl when asked what he loves about the boat. “[As part of last weekend’s Safe Harbor Race Weekend] we ended up doing a 15-mile beat from top of Prudence Island to Fort Adams in 19 to 26 knots, with the No. 4 jib and full main and you’d sail with your hand open on the tiller. It’s really fun 30-foot boat. On the [downwind leg through the West Passage] we hit 21.2 knots with the kite up. We were passing the J/122s. It's a 1995 design that sails just beautifully.”

Like with Gibbs, Sertl sees the ORC World Championship as a unique opportunity. It will combine his family’s passion for buoy racing with his love of offshore sailing.

“I like sailing at night, I like offshore stuff,” says Sertl, who did both Mackinaw races and the Newport Bermuda Race this summer. “Our daughter Katja really wanted to do it. My wife Cory is interested. It’s different. It’s a little bit of an adventure.”

To make the boat more competitive, the Sertls have made a few modifications to the original one-design configuration, installing a bow sprit, adding some lead to the boat and re-designing the sails. But, he says, the biggest key to success may not have anything to do with the boat.

“We’ve got to get a good understand of the currents for the two distance races,” he says. “We’re working on trying to figure that out. We’ve sailed the boat a lot, so I think our time in the boat in very helpful. On our team, everybody can do everything, we’ll have 6 really good helmspeople. Our crew has done a lot of overnight racing and know how to keep the wheels on the bus.”

Racing for the 2024 ORC World Championship will start on Monday, September with a 36-hour distance race. Buoy racing will take place on Wednesday, October 2, Thursday, October 3 and Saturday, October 5. A coastal race will be held on Friday, October 4.