2022 IRC FORMULATION CHANGES

This is not an exhaustive list of every development in the IRC rating formulation but covers the main changes and has been produced to help owners understand changes to IRC ratings. These are applied automatically in the rating software which is applied across the whole IRC fleet.

See https://ircrating.org/irc-rule/ for the full IRC Rule text and Appendix A Definitions, and details of Rule changes.

HEADSAILS

The rating formulation of headsails has been updated to address the rating imbalance of short luff/large roach headsails compared to equivalent area regular headsails.

FLYING HEADSAILS

The rating formulation for flying headsails has been updated such that flying headsail rating effect will be lower with specific consideration if there is a spinnaker declared for the boat.

LIGHT & POWERFUL (MODERN TYPE) BOATS

The rating formulation for relatively large, light and powerful boats such as TP 52s, Volvo 70s, Maxi 72s etc. has been updated with a rating increase. This also affects general light powerful boats to a lesser degree. For lighter powerful boats in the 30 to 40ft approximate range there is a small rating decrease.

BOW THRUSTERS

A tunnel bow thruster previously received a rating reduction by means of an adjustment to Hull Factor (HF). From 2022 this will be calculated within the software so HF will be the same with or without a bow thruster. Boats renewing an expired certificate with a tunnel bow thruster will see an increase in HF; however, there will be no change in the rating reduction due to the bowthruster. A retractable bow thruster previously received no HF adjustment. From 2022 there will be a small rating reduction and this will be calculated within the software. In both cases the bow thruster will be noted on the certificate.

WHISKER POLES

Rule 21.3.6 has been amended and IRC now only rates a whisker pole set to leeward:

21.3.6 Aboatshalldeclareusinganysparasawhiskerpolesettoleewardtosetaheadsailora flying headsail.

The rating effect is unchanged from 2021. Note: all boats have been reset to No Whisker Pole, so owner’s using a leeward whisker pole must declare it for their 2022 IRC rating, even if it was declared for the 2021 certificate.

A full copy of the 2022 Rules are available to download HERE.