The RORC invites its members to the RORC New Zealand Dinner at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, Auckland.

To coincide with the Louis Vuitton Trophy for the WSTA

You are invited to a dinner to be held on: Tuesday 16^th March at 1900 for 2000

Price: $NZ 75
3 course dinner, wine not included

To apply for tickets: please contact Tom and Vicky Jackson directly on   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or (+64) 021 0259 1736
Other enquiries to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

BLESMA (British Limbless Ex-Service Men’s Association) are delighted to take part in one of the Caribbean’s most impressive offshore races on the 22^nd of February 2010. As the only all-amputee crew in the race, this promises to be a huge challenge.

The RORC Caribbean 600 is an exciting 605 nautical mile yacht race, which has been set up by The Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) and Antigua Yacht Club. The race starts in Antigua and will take the BLESMA crew north of the Caribbean, passing a mark off Barbuda, the islands of Nevis, Saba and St Barths, to circle St Maarten before heading down to Guadeloupe and finishing in Antigua.

Read the full press release on the RORC Caribbean Minisite

2010 RORC Lecture Programme

Sam and ‘Roxy’ take on the Everest of single-handed oceanic racing on Monday 1st March at 1900

The Venue: Royal Overseas League, (directly behind the Royal Ocean Racing Club) Overseas House, Park Place, St James Street, London, SW1A 1LR

Tickets: £20 RORC members, £25 non-members - Tickets bought before 15th February - £5 discount available (no refunds)

Supper: One-course supper. £10 per person. (max. 70 people) served at the RORC following the talk. Sam will be available at the Royal Ocean Racing Club after the lecture to talk with members about her campaign

To Book: Contact - Siobhan Geraghty on 0207 493 2248 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

With only weeks to go to the second edition of the RORC Caribbean 600, a highly competitive international fleet are assembling to take part in an ocean racing spectacular.

“We already have 11 nations represented” commented RORC Chief Executive Eddie Warden Owen about the entries so far. “ Antigua, Canada, France, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa and the United States. The inaugural race in 2009 created quite a stir in the ocean racing world and the entry list shows a number of new competitors in a diverse fleet.”

Two high performance Maxis are top contenders for line honours and mounting a strong challenge for ICAP Leopard’s mono-hull record. Genuine Risk designed by Ed Dubois is a 98ft canting keel speed machine based in Baltimore, USA but Karl Kwok’s, Beau Geste will also be a strong contender. The Hong Kong based boat is fresh from winning the Transatlantic Maxi Yacht Cup, in a new race record of just over 9 days, the Farr 80 skippered by Gavin Brady has awesome pace off the wind.

Read the full details on the RORC Caribbean Minisite

Offshore sailors are invited to attend an International Yacht Racing Forum to be held in Hamburg on Saturday, 13th February 2010.

Organised by the German Offshore Owners Association together with hansboot Boatshow, North Sails, Pantaenius insurance and SGS Yachttesting Services this is a FREE forum concerning the future of Offshore Yacht Racing.

For further details and the programme, please refer to the following website: http://www.baltic-irc.org

All yachts competing in the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race must have at least 30% of the crew trained to Section 6 of the ISAF Offshore Special Regulations.

For those who fancy something more extreme than the standard course, KTY Yachts are running an "Extreme RYA/ISAF Offshore Safety Course", this course is the same as the one that the crews in the Volvo Ocean Race did. It will be held on 24-25 April in South Shields Nautical College where they have an "extreme environment pool", which means one metre seas, force 7 wind, rain deluge and thunder and lightning. So if you want to find out what it really could be like contact Yvonne at KTY to book a place. +44 (0) 1489 570 302 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

If you would rather do the usual course you can find a list of training establishments here.

The Royal Ocean racing Club today announced a change to the class rating bands for the 2010 Rolex Commodores' Cup. The lower limit of Class 1 has been lowered by 10 points from 1.120 to 1.110. The rating bands for classes 2 and 3 remain unchanged.

Eddie Warden Owen, RORC CEO, explained the thinking behind the change: "We have become aware that many countries have struggled to find competitive Class 1 boats and by lowering the bottom rating limit of Class 1 and creating an overlap between classes 1 and 2 I am sure it will help countries select competitive teams."

"Interest in the event continues to grow from all over the world," explained Eddie. "America, Scandinavia, the Baltic, Germany and South Africa are all assembling competitive teams as IRC continues to grow worldwide."

Read the full details on the Rolex Commodores' Cup Minisite

Congratulations to RORC stalwart Tom Sperrey for winning the RORC Racing Division of the ARC.  Racing his Sigma 41 “Nightlife” Tom had good battle with the Grand Soleil 40 “Captain Blind” but finally beat him by over one and a half hours on corrected time.   You can find all the details on the boat’s race website http://www.sperrey.net/

Results from the ARC RORC Racing Division are here: ARC-2009-Results-RORC-IRC-Racing-by-Class.pdf.

The Royal Ocean Racing Club has made a decision to ban Dyneema^® lifelines for the 2010 RORC race programme. At the ISAF annual conference in Busan Korea last November Dyneema^® fibre was approved as a material for use in lifelines for offshore race boats. The material has been used for a number of years in Melges 24 and Melges 32 and on IMOCA 60’s in the Vendee Globe.

The RORC committee made up of very experienced offshore racers expressed collective concern about the suitability of the material for offshore boats where the crew are constantly hiking especially in rough conditions and unanimously decided to ban its use for RORC races in 2010.

“We voiced our concern about the materials suitability for offshore race boats when the submission first came to out attention” said Ed Broadway the chairman of the RORC Special Regulations committee. “Whilst we know it is a very strong material and has been tested on IMOCA 60 in the Vendee Globe it has not been subjected to a season of offshore racing and we would rather take a wait and see attitude and let our constituents know our intentions as early as possible”

Ian Loffhagen the RORC Racing Manager feels that RORC’s conservative approach is in the best interest of the sport. “While we always try and embrace new technology safety at sea is our principal concern.  With over 400 boats racing with us each season we want to act in the best interest of the majority. The RORC committee were unanimously opposed to a move away from stainless steel lifelines and we will monitor the use of Dyneema in other races”

The Royal Ocean Racing Club’s 2009 Annual Dinner and Prizegiving was held on 7th November in the beautiful surroundings of Banqueting House, Whitehall. 330 sailors and their partners enjoyed a champagne reception in the historic Undercroft and a sumptuous 3 course meal with accompanying wine.

Ian Loffhagen and Commodore, Andrew McIrvine, presented the trophies for the 2009 season to winners in all IRC classes together with special awards for a wide range of racing achievements. The presentation of the ‘Yacht of the Year Award’ went to Philippe Falle and Sailing Logic. In his acceptance speech, Philippe praised the team for their support over the last two years.

As ever, the Annual Dinner and Prize Giving provided an excellent forum for members and crews to socialise and celebrate an enjoyable season and dancing followed the Prize Giving until the early hours.

Find some more photos from the Annual Dinner in the RORC Photo Gallery.