The ORC Annual General Meetings were held in early November by electronic means only. Australian boat owners were represented by Chris Zonca who is Australian Sailing’s Ratings Manager.

The ORC’s meetings are detailed and there are sub-committees that consider ratings office business, measurement, promotion and development, and race management, all culminating with the Annual General Meeting at the end of the conference.

Whilst Australian Sailing did not make any submissions to the meetings, issues that received consideration ranged from definition of a shaft to measurement of limit marks on bowsprits. There were no major changes this year that would impact the Australian fleet, with a lot of the discussions being focused on editorial corrections and ratings office software updates.

Looking toward the future, the ORC and its committees are interested in how to provide multiple certificates for a boat allowing it to switch between different known measurement configurations, and how to properly rate boats that race with multiple flying headsails at any one time.

Australian Sailing’s rating page is at https://www.sailingresources.org.au/ratingshome_2021_22ud/
For the ORC rating system and meeting documents go to https://www.orc.org/

By Glen Stanaway https://www.sailing.org.au/about/ourstaff/