At a very well attended meeting of the SCORA committee, held on Wednesday the 26th March, at the Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven, a unanimous decision was taken to implement, with immediate effect, a system of new class bands for the South Coast.
Notice of the proposed change has been flagged by SCORA for the past two seasons, and following extensive consultations with the south coast clubs, it was obvious that the existing class bands had been under pressure for some time.
A steady increase in the number and size of boats, particularly at the top Hi Tec end of the fleet, together with an annual depreciation in IRC rating values, has seen various boats continue to drift down beyond the existing band cut off points.
The proposed system creates a new class between .919 to.865, which in effect reunites boats from the bottom of the existing Class 2, such as the Formula 28, First 32, with the Impala fleet, which moved to class 3 some years ago.
Due to the large number of boats affected, a one-season derogation has been offered to the Class 2 owners only, who want to remain in their existing class this season.The remainder of the existing class 3 fleet, which contains a huge number of the Ruffin 23,GK 24s, together with a mixture of Sadler’s, Trappers and Moodys, will provide a more traditional racing fleet, with a much tighter rating band, which will now be classified as class 4.
There will continue to be an IRC restricted class, for class 1 production boats only, with boats that find them selves above the class Zero threshold of 1.040, having the option to come down to the restricted class, provided they have a max hull factor of 8.6 as of December 31st,2007, and complete a declaration confirming their construction.
The first racing using the new bands will be staged in Kinsale on Sunday, March 30th.as part of the Matthews April League.
SCORA NEW BANDS
Class 0—1.040 and above
Class 1—1.039 to .980
Class 2—.979 to .920
Class 3—.919 to .865
Class 4 .864 and below.
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