IRM AGE.

The IRM will oust the IMS as the Grand Prix rating rule of choice, and, according to a well known designer who has been around for a couple of decades,'The rate of passing of the IMS will make the demise of the IOR look positively pedestrian.'

I do hope he is right, for at last there is a rating rule which produces fast boats and positively encourages all concerned to do so, rather than reward them with rating benefits when the boat is deliberately made slower. It has long been my belief that fast boats are the best boats and should win races.

The owners of the 57 certificated IRM boats so far are certainly keen to help progress the rule and met recently to discuss the format of their programme for the upcoming summer. They have planned a series for two divisions within the rule (the changeover point is at a Time Correction Factor of .990) so the small boats don't have to race against the bigger ones - there are now sufficient numbers to sustain two separate groups.

Those who sailed smaller boats in the Commodores' Cup had a rough time watching the bigger boats - the Farr 40s and the like - disappearing over the horizon, and were left wondering whether they would be able to come home with a corrected time anything like that of the larger boats. For the bigger boats there will be an inshore and an offshore championship series, while the smaller boats will only race inshore.

The offshore series will use five of the RORC's races, the Morgan Cup. the Myth of Malham Cup to Le Havre, the St Malo Race, the Fastnet (for which there will be a points loading) and the end-of-season Cherbourg Race. The best three out of five results will count for the championship. Both of the inshore series will include the IR2000 championship at Portsmouth, the Le Havre Regatta, the Berthon Source Regatta, Cowes Week and the Torbay Royal Regatta - a wide spread of events of differing types.

It was the keenness of the race organisers at this meeting which echoed the hopes of the owners. They were all trying to help this new class expand. It was easy to detect that they had all begun to understand that competitors are keen to race hard around better courses and that the windward/leeward is the course of choice. There was the reservation that a week-long regatta needs some leavening with other types of course interspersed.

They also realised the importance of the social side of the regatta as Mike Brand, who was extolling the joys of Ramsgate Race Week, described the different ambiences available by saying, 'It's quiet in the Royal Temple Yacht Club and noisy in the marquee on the harbour.'

One knew that the French were keen to make the rule work in their country with the appearance of Didier Dardot of the UNCL attending the meeting to encourage entries for Le Havre Regatta, which follows the RORC's Myth of Malham Race (which ends there). They are, with the RORC, the joint sponsors of IR2000, of which the IRM is one part and the IRC the other. There is one very significant difference which may prevent IRM and IRC boats racing in the same events: the IRM yachts have the advantage of also competing for the IRC prizes - the IRM allows boats to carry five spinnakers to the IRC's restriction to three.

The spread of IRM has gone beyond the homelands of the RORC and the French UNCL; there has been the optimisation of Mumm 36s with different keels and rigs for IRM in Australia and Hong Kong and also the possibility of at least one in the United States. Although the Farr design was long before the IRM was envisaged, the boats convert well according to Hugh Welbourn. Hugh was one of the rule formulation team and his conversion of the 50ft IOR boat. 'Heaven can Wait', in Australia has been outstandingly successful. It has stimulated other owners to consider adopting the IRM. Spanish owners have invited the RORC to present a seminar to discuss adoption of this rule, which, if successful, could see the whole Mediterranean turning to the new rule.

The level rating aspect of the IRM, where there are already 9.0 and 10.7 and 12.5 metre classes, will be enhanced most definitely by the decision of the Societe de Regattes Rochellaise in France to make the Half Ton Cup available for the 9 metre class. At the height of the IOR, the Half Ton Cup was its most popular level rating band and the overall length of the boats will be much the same although the IRM 9 metre will be considerably quicker upwind and down. A 11.3 metre purpose designed production boat, from Jason Ker for U2CanRace1,is already underway with a first order of six boats for a stand alone class.

The Rule makers are trying their hardest to keep abreast of development and are investigating several areas in order that there is not the type of hiatus that occurred when 'Krazy K-Yote' turned up as the big boat of the French Admiral's Cup team. For 2002, the intention is to rate boats with wing sectioned, even rotating, masts. Otherwise, there is an enforced rule stability, but there is the ability to plug undesirable loopholes.

Now is the time for decision-making. Last year, one or two high-fiyers built new IRC boats, taking advantage of a secret rule that is becoming less opaque as it ages. There is a place for IRC, but it shouldn’t be for sailors who want to win by pitting their organising skills and those of their appointed designer against a rating rule. That should be the province of IRM, as it was 20 years ago with the IOR.

Naturally evolution will lead to faster and faster IRM boats. exactly as the high-flyers are trying to do in IRC. That rule is the province of older boats with smaller budgets. No one has declared the IRM to be cheap. but it looks to me to be capable of giving value for money for a reasonable length of time, by which time, the boats will be ready to be absorbed by IRC.

Maybe, one or two of those who scooped the pool in the bigger IRC classes will strut their stuff in IRM, and help in the development of a racing rule, as opposed to a handicapping system for existing and production boats. There is already a production IRM 11.3 metre boat, to Ker designs. which will help lower the price for those who want a slightly bigger boat than the majority. One hates to think how fast they might be if 'Roaring Meg', a year earlier at 10.7, was anything to go by (they say it will be faster than a Farr 40. but then, they would, wouldn't they?), and I understand that there is a 12.5 metre production boat in the planning stages.

It is beginning to be a move in the right direction, but whether we will ever see the large numbers of boats that once raced in events like the Solent Points and raced offshore every other weekend in the summer, I somewhat doubt.

There are too many other leisure pursuits available these days that simply were not around 25 years ago. However, the lure of the Half Ton Cup could bring back the bigger fleet and, if the 10.7 metres were to secure the Three-Quarter Ton Cup, that could be an added attraction to aid the development of the IRM mass - which, until it reaches a critical size, is in danger of being overlooked.

If fast and exciting boats are what sells, the IRM should have no difficulty in reaching that critical mass shortly and the owners can begin to enjoy top quality racing.