Just seven days ago, Cowes Combined Clubs (CCC) reviewed the list of Skandia Cowes Week IRC entries and, as usual, split the classes to provide an even spacing of boats across the seven IRC classes. However, they hadn’t reckoned such a large number of late entries would be received so close to the event.

The past week has seen a large number of new IRC entries, most of which have been – as luck would have it – in classes 2 and 4. This has led to an unmanageable situation with classes that have very quickly become too big. CCC has therefore taken the decision to re-do the class splits with rating bands as follows:

IRC Class 1

1.140 and above

IRC Class 2

1.080 to 1.139

IRC Class 3

1.067 to 1.079

IRC Class 4

1.020 to 1.066

IRC Class 5

0.975 to 1.019

IRC Class 6

0.930 to 0.974

IRC Class 7

0.770 to 0.929

This re-cutting of the classes will spread the IRC entry more evenly across classes 1-7 while still keeping boats of the same type in the same class. CCC apologises for the confusion that this late change may cause. However, they trust that entrants will appreciate the better and more evenly matched racing that will result and that this will more than make up for any inconvenience.

Updated class lists can be found by selecting Boats and Classes from www.cowesweek.co.uk