Poolside 13 – 15/08/06
It is far too long since we have written a general newsletter, I can only blame this on having too much ‘real’ work to do! A browse through the Poolside archive today amused us and prompted an effort to update you on general matters.
It has been a busy 18 months in the office, with far too much going on to mention it all! On the IRC front, since the acceptance of IRC as an official International Rule, it has expanded into the USA, with 550 US boats rated in 2005. www.us-irc.org gives full details of US regattas using the system. This has meant quite a jump in the amount of processing work along with all the questions and correspondence that goes with it.
Other countries starting to use IRC during the last year include New Zealand and Japan, we hope that it suits their needs and is successful. Elsewhere within existing IRC countries it also continues to expand; we expect the total number of boats rated in 2006 to have increased again.
In the office we decided to have a major re-arrangement to make better use of our work and storage space, which meant that during the winter we suffered a few weeks of builders, dust and disruption! However this did not cause any major disruption to processing ratings. Emma Cary joined us in October to do the daily accounts and assist with IRC. In the spring, Katherine Harker announced that she was pregnant, and by the beginning of June the long journey from Cowes every day had got too much for her, so she started maternity leave early. In her absence, Emma stepped in and has been doing a great job on the IRC processing work, handling most of the UK certificates, while Jenny Howells concentrates mainly on overseas IRC, via the many local representatives worldwide. We have a temporary new receptionist, Anne Paterson, who covers the day to day general administration.
New for 2006 was the taking on of MOCRA ratings for multihulls. Previously run by the MOCRA Class, they decided to ask the Rating Office to take it on, and Emma Cary was given the responsibility of administering it. So far this has gone very well and hopefully will continue to grow.
James Dadd was out of the office for much of the year with the 05/06 Volvo Ocean Race, and is already working on the rules for the next race. Other staff have attended various regattas during the year, it is always good to support and be seen, we only wish we had time to go to more!
We hope you have had a successful season, and for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere we’re jealous that your summer is just beginning, and wish you good racing!
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News Archive: http://rorcrating.com/news/default.htm
Rating Office homepage: http://rorcrating.com
Poolside Archive: http://rorcrating.com/poolside/archive.htm
As always, if have any queries, comments or suggestions, please feel free to
e-mail me on jenny@rorcrating.com.