The team at the Offshore Racing Association has had an active winter, revamping its ORR certificate processing in coordination with US Sailing Offshore and also electing new leadership: Sheila McCurdy is the new chair of the board of directors, Ray Cullum is secretary, and Tom Trujillo joins as a director.

Beginning in 2021, all certificate processing is handled by the ORA and its service provider, Race Management Systems (RMS). Applications for ORR certificates still start with US Sailing Offshore, which handles arrangement of measurers and entry of measured data. After that, the ORA has taken on responsibility for error and other data checking and, through RMS, the issuance of all certificates. RMS has been handling ORR-Ez certificates for several seasons already and is now handling ORR, as well.

“US Sailing is pleased to continue to work with the ORA and the RMS System in the production of the ORR certificates,” says Nathan Titcomb, US Sailing Offshore Director. With US Sailing maintaining the principal point of contact in the collection of the measurement and boat data, the UMS [Universal Measurement System] is supported while allowing for further data validation steps in the production of ORR certificates via the RMS system.”

McCurdy was elected as ORA Board Chair, replacing Dick Hampikian, who had served in the position since the ORA was founded in 2006—Hampikian remains on the board and continues to chair the ORR Rules Committee. McCurdy joined the Board 10 years ago when she was commodore of the Cruising Club of America, which uses ORR to score the Newport Bermuda Race.

Ray Cullum joined the ORA Board a year ago; he is a long-time organizer of the Marion to Bermuda Ocean Race, which also uses ORR. New directorTom Trujillo is Vice Commodore of the Transpacific Yacht Club and former race committee chair for the Transpac Race, which is scored using ORR.

“While the ORR is the most accurate rule for cruising and racing boats from narrow and deep classics to wide and light machines,” says McCurdy, “it is excellent for offshore racing because it includes measured stability. ORR-Ez is great for more casual racing. It uses a simplified and affordable level of ORR-VPP accuracy and racecourse customization for those tired of endless windward leewards.

“We do much more than crank out certificates. ORA-1 is an initiative to have ORA representatives available around the country to help organizing authorities (OAs) and fleets tailor PHRF ratings to wind and sea conditions using the ORR-VPP and sistership database. Our technical team can even ‘build a boat’ for designs not in the database. The point of everything ORA does is to make handicap racing fairer and more fun for more people.

“I have been racing offshore since the mid-1970s on both sides of the Atlantic. My first desk job was running IOR certificates for USYRU (now US Sailing). My father was a yacht designer who helped develop the IMS rule in the 1980s. I believe ORA has the best products of handicap racing in the U.S., and we work steadily to improve what we do year-to-year to minimize optimization sought by wealthy boat owners to buy their way to trophies. That kind of arms race drives other sailors off the racecourse.”

Sheila McCurdy, ORA Chair. Photo by Robbie Benjamin