Offshore racing starts tomorrow at the ORC World Championship

After three days of inspections, the first race of the 2024 ORC World Championship organized by the New York Yacht Club in cooperation with the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) will start tomorrow with a long race designed to test the offshore skills of the 43 teams entered in the week-long event.

Starting at 1000 local time all teams will set off from the start within Narragansett Bay and head offshore to various buoys and towers placed in the Atlantic and other locations ranging from west of Montauk on Long Island east to Buzzards Bay tower. The finish will also be near the harbor at Newport at Fort Adams.

There are three courses for each class: a 231-mile course for the fastest 6 boats in Class 0, a 203-mile course for the 19 entries in Class A and a 177-mile course for the 14 entries in Class B. These courses have been designed for a target completion time of 24-30 hours based on the fastest and slowest-rated boats in each class and the predicted moderate northeast breezes expected tomorrow and Tuesday.

“We’re using ORC’s Weather Routing Scoring for these courses, which are running more or less east-to-west,” said Ed Cesare, Chairman of New York YC’s Rating Rule and Measurement Committee. “Key factors in the race will be tactics and sailing fast, since there are a lot of twists and turns in the course so staying ahead of the decisions on the true wind angles on the next leg will be important for making the right sail choices.

"Fatigue will also be important, since the race is not long enough to get into a real watch system and will have to balance pushing with rest at the same time. Traffic may be a factor since there are a lot of commercial vessels and recreational fisherman out there that will keep everyone on their toes, and lastly tidal currents rushing between Montauk and Block Island. It will be a challenging race.”

Some teams took advantage today of practice racing with the Race Committee rehearsing their moves for the inshore phase of the competition. Starts and short courses were set in two course areas set east of Brenton Reef for Classes 0 and B and for Class A in anticipation of the windward-leeward races to be held on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.

“Our team is really excited and ready to take on this event,” said Jesper Radich, tactician on Hanno Zeihm’s Marten 49 MOANA from Germany. “Our team is relatively young and everyone is full of enthusiasm. We are the slower-rated boat in Class 0, but this could sometimes be to our advantage in races like this.”

“We have been planning for this event all year to take advantage of competing in a World Championship here in Newport,” said Connie Baris, owner the J/122 Class B entry DIRE WOLF. “This is a bucket-list event and we expect to have a great week of racing.”