On Saturday, Feb 11, Eastern Yacht Club and the Marblehead Station of the Storm Trysail Club sponsored a Rate Rules Symposium. The symposium was well attended with over 95 people in attendance, in person and via Zoom. The attendees came from all aspect of the sport: competitors, organizing authorities (OAs), Racing Rule organizations and race officials.

The symposium was organized as a platform for a discussion around the three main rating rules that are in use in the country: PHRF, ORC and ORR.  The panel of presenters was composed of Andrew Weiss & Larry Fox – Storm Trysail and why STC has gone with ORC, Sheila McCurdy  – President of the Board of ORR, Bump Wilcox & Rob Gorman  – Board Members of PHRF New England, and Ed Cesare  – Rating Rules Committee Chair for the New Yacht Club on selecting a VPP based rule.

After the presenters covered their rule, there was a short break which led into a lively discussion. A couple of the take always from the symposium were: PHRF needs to be supported by OAs as it is the on ramp for folks to get into racing, but there also needs to be a performance option (aka a VPP based rule).  Regarding the performance option, there was an interesting discussion between the ORR and ORC representatives, especially where ORC is making headway in some of the major events hosted in the United States.

A highlight of the symposium was the statement by Mitch Wiest, Offshore Committee Chair for Mass Bay Sailing Association, that Mass Bay is agnostic to which racing rule an OA uses and strongly encouraged OAs to us the rule that encourages the most participation. This was a big turn of events.

As special thanks to all the presenters and especially to Eastern member and Marblehead Storm Trysail Club Station Captain Clarke Smith who organized the event.  A recording of the event is available at https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/MPAp7YXhdrkoKIrpE9lv4gsuPCGUf5Lrbf18lqmQsWhtOTCrQKvhOqzR_3UpYVmS.biJSaqUF_E7HrB2h

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