International offshore rule

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The International Offshore Rule ( IOR rule ) is an international compensation formula for seagoing yachts . It originated from the English RORC and the American CCA formulas. It was used for offshore yachts, but has now been replaced by other systems, in particular ORC and IRC .

The IOR rules have been in use since 1969 and were very extensive and complicated. Despite its age, the calculation required two computer screens full of numbers with which a race value was calculated. This racing value was given in feet , but had only marginally to do with the actual length of the ship. An IOR survey was possible for ships between 16.0 feet (4.88 m) and 70 feet (21.34 m). Since, despite the equalization calculation, no ships of such different sizes could compete fairly against each other, they were divided into 8 classes. The IOR rules also allowed regattas to be held within these classes without time adjustment. In these races, the first boat to cross the finish line was also the winner. The previously popular tonner classes used this scheme.

The IOR rule is no longer used today. The main reasons for this are their high complexity and the fact that design engineers increasingly succeeded in exploiting loopholes in the set of rules in order to gain advantages that were not intended.

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  • Joachim Schult: Sailors Lexicon . 13th edition. Delius Klasing, Bielefeld 2008, ISBN 978-3-7688-1041-8 . Keywords IOR formula , IOR classes