PROBLEM
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A number of slower boats have returned to IRc from PY, and a number of new boats have joined the IRc fleet but they are all older, lower-handicapped, non-planing boats. At the same time the upper end of the IRc fleet has been depleted. This gives unfair racing, especially for the slower boats. However there are not enough boats to split IRc into two fleets, and in certain cases splitting on handicap number does not give a fair split.

PROPOSED SOLUTION
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We no longer use SBR, and the sportsboats race in IRc.

This gives us enough boats to have 2 good IRc classes, but instead of splitting them at, say 0.950 as we used to, we use a formula based on DLR or Hull factor to essentially split the fleet into "Traditional cruiser racers" and "Modern lightweight designs", the idea being that if we race like boats against like boats we get fair racing. We would want to aim for 2 classes made up like this (We have included some boats which do not currently race IRc to better show how it might work)

Note that although class A is nominally "fast boats" Airtight (Irc 0.963) is "fast" but Valkyrie (0.997) is "slow". The exact formula is to be determined.

We believe that this split would give good, fair and competitive racing to the whole fleet and propose that we start this from Jan 2007.

What do you think?