THE BIG BOAT MEETING.

At the inaugural meting of the IRM Owners' Association, the IRM made a significant step forward from the being the sole province of designers, due to the originators from the RORC rating office and a few pioneering forward thinking owners.

Around 50 people turned out at the Royal Southern YC in Hamble last month to add their weight and enthusiasm to the fledgling organisation. They also wanted to learn a bit more about who might be doing what in terms of building or modifying existing boats for next year, and wanted to decide what structure and format the nascent IRM circuit will have for next season.

As well as the healthy complement of owners and owners' reps that turned up, there were representatives from the main design offices who are active in IRM, Ker, Mills, Stimson and Rogers. Also there were 14 people who sent their apologies.Taken as a whole this is quite an impressive turnout and must bode well for next season and beyond.

With the majority of the Farr 40 fleet likely to be on the other side of the Atlantic for the early part of the season (and then involved in Admiral's Cup trials), any UK/North France IRM circuit needs to stand on its own two feet and not be reliant on Farr 40 presence to bolster the strength and depth of the fleet.

The plan is to have two IRM classes with a split suggested at 0.990 - the same as has been used in the Hamble Winter Series. Though with the expectation that the new Farr 52s and some of the IC 45s will probably race in the bigger boat fleet this split will likely move up a bit.

The big boats in IRM 1 will have a championship series comprising three best results from five regattas and three best results from a choice of five RORC offshore races. IRM 2 will be decided over three best from five inshore regattas.

The inshore regatta choice is from the IR2000 championship (June 1-3), a new Le Havre Regatta (June TBA), the Berthon Source Regatta (July 13-15), Cowes Week (August 4-11) and Torbay Royal Regatta (August 27-29). Offshores are the usual diet of Morgan Cup, Myth of Malham, St Malo and Cherbourg Race and of course The Fastnet.

IRM boats will also have their own start next season at the Warsash Spring Series, in May at the Royal Southern's Channel GPS Race, at the Round the Island and the Hamble Winter Series.

There was talk of there being a minimum of 10 boats starting in either class in the early part of the season, sharing the same start when numbers are low was also discussed.

Shadow scoring was offered at a few regattas last year and it will be used at Spi Ouest and Bell Lawrie Scottish Series again next year. Yet the conclusion of this meeting was that it is not necessarily to be encouraged since there is a difference between IRC and IRM configured boats. Presumably it will not necessarily show off IRM configured boats in their best light.

Feedback from the other side of the English Channel was also pretty encouraging. A new IRM regatta will be held from Le Havre some time in June. The Societe de Regattes de Rochellaise has announced that they intend to recover the Half Ton Cup from its last known recipient - believed to be in a pair of well-known Greek hands - and offer it up for racing in the IRM 9m class as that is reckoned to be the modern equivalent of the half tonner.

The next meeting of the association is likely to be held during the London Boat Show early January. Also scheduled for the show is a full-scale IRM seminar which will seek to introduce and explain the rule to those who may be looking for a new direction for their racing. It should also help answer lingering questions for those who may be considering building, buying or modifying for next year.

One key objective must be to explain how IRM rates boats in the existing IRC fleet and to what extent it is worth rating IRC type boats and racing them under IRM.

How this is handled, given that the association has already said that mixed IRC/IRM classes do not necessarily work, is another tricky area for rule writers. There does need to be a clear strategic pathway which does not automatically render the top end IRC boats obsolete under IRM (two prominent BH41 owners were along or represented to discover where they might fit in under IRM and whether they need to be thinking 'new boat').

The Rating Office personnel are also planning a few missionary trips out to other main racing areas in the early part of the year and this will certainly be one of the main topics.

And what of new boats? The attendance list minutes Robbie Cameron-Davies as an 'IRM New Build' and he has taken the chair of the working party. Nick Hartson and Wendy Layton and Jonathan Pelly-Fry are also believed to be in the market for new IRM boats. Three Mumm 36 owners are looking at their options and presumably all waiting for one to make the first move on IRM modifications. Ker Associates and Race1 report that they have sold four Ker 11.3s already and have probably another four in the pipeline. They will not disclose owners' names as yet but, my dear Dr Watson, there might be a good chance that at least one will have been there?

IRM is not going to be an overnight success story. What it does have going for it is that it is designed to encourage fast fun boats. It needs to stick to this track, while IMS seems to become ever more complex and, even according to designers working in this area, favours boats which are increasingly hobbled to gain a rating advantage.