IRC INSIGHT

When the newly appointed Dr Jason Smithwick was interviewed two years ago by Yachts & Yachting as the man in charge of IRC, he said: “We need to concentrate more on local regattas, throughout the world, to make people understand that IRC is an accessible rating system that is easy to use. It is not just about Maxi 72s and TP52s, it is about cruiser racers in evening racing also using it.”

Two seasons on, has he been as good as his word? The coming year has several significant changes in store for yachts racing under RORC and UNCL’s successful rating system, so we caught up with Dr Smithwick to find out what they are.

Dr Smithwick is a naval architect with a PhD in computational fluid dynamics from the University of Southampton. Before working at RORC, he joined ISAF (now World Sailing) in 2008 as the Director of Technical and Offshore. Today, for a man in charge of the rating certificates for almost 7,000 yachts worldwide, he’s remarkably calm and very helpful. And he is the first to acknowledge that IRC has come a long way since its early days.

Many Y&Y readers will remember the International Offshore Rule (IOR), introduced in 1974, which was a published system, so designers were able