Poolside 7 – 16/1/03

Happy New Year!

Many of you have already sent in your revalidations and applications for 2003, thank you for being prompt and getting them in early! Unfortunately we have had a technical hold up with the program and have therefore been prudent and delayed the issue of certificates until we are sure it is correct. We hope to start issuing certificates in the next day or so and apologise for the delay. As you can imagine we have quite a queue now so those of you have applied should receive your certificates next week.

Anyone who did not have an IRC rating in 2002, and is not on our mailing list, should contact us at info@rorcrating.com if they would like the 2003 Yearbook and application forms. The new Rules and application forms are also available on our website.

As you will have seen from the front page of our website, some "big" regattas are using IRC this year: the Cape to Rio Race which is currently underway, the NZ Millennium Cup superyacht regatta in Auckland in February, and the Daimler-Chrysler North Atlantic Challenge from New York to Hamburg, in June. Although it is exciting for IRC to be involved in these headline-creating races, of course IRC’s mainstay is continued support from those of you who race in the many annual regattas and weekend racing in the UK, Ireland and around the world. Links can be found to the organisers of many of these on our website at http://rorcrating.com/info/regatta.htm . I would love to hear of any that you think should be added, or if any of the details are incorrect.

IRC Feedback: You may have received an IRC Feedback form from us, and thank you to the many who have already returned it to us with your comments. This is your chance to let us have your thoughts on IRC, the results are being collated, your comments noted and the results will be posted on the website later in 2003. If you have not already done so, please please complete a form and get it back to us! You can also download the feedback questionnaire from our website, see the link on the homepage.

IRM has an exciting racing year lined up, see the IRM Class Association website for details: http://www.irmclass.com

Sports Boats: We hope to make progress on the 2003 SBR program and revalidation soon and will be sending out forms to holder of 2002 certificates.

Nautor’s Swan Rating: The 2003 NSR rule and application form are now available on our website, please use the NSR link in the top section of the home page. The rule will be used at the Swan European Regatta at the end of June in Cowes, and the Swan American Regatta at the end of July in New York. If you are entering these regattas, please download the form and get it into us as soon as possible.