In an effort to promote grand prix racing, the IRM has put forward a proposal to run a separate ‘prestige’ class for all grand prix racing boat under the IRM rule at this year’s Cork Week.

In his presentation at the IRM AGM last night at the RORC, John McWilliam, chairman of the Cork 2002 Race Committee, said that in having a separate class it was important that all the competitive grand prix raceboats sailed in that class and that they were not split between IRM and the IRC cruiser-racer fleet.

The plan is to have a formula that defines what boats are put into the IRM Class, based on a DLR (Displacement to Length Ratio) of 145 or below which should ensure all the best racers will compete together in a spectacular IRM class of at least 25 boats. This includes all the recognised grand prix raceboats including the Farr 52, IC45, Race1 Ker 11.3, Farr 40 and the new Race1 Ker 9.8, as well as one-offs like Peter Morton’s Mills 50, Stephen Bailey’s IRM optimised Sydney 40, Jason Ker’s one-offs Roaring Meg and ShakerMaker II, Stimpson’s new IRM 41 and the new Corby 48, building for Richard Matthews.

Other top racing boats that do not automatically come into IRM under this formula, such as Corby’s other one-offs Nokia (ex Barlow Plastics) and Gloves Off, will be invited to join the grand prix racing fleet in IRM.

The Association also proposed to CORK that the IRM class should be unrestricted, so that those who wish to race with or against professionals may do so, whilst ensuring that the racing is at as high a level as possible. This should assist the CORK organisation in achieving its desire that boats with professionals sail in a separate class.

The Association hopes that the RORC will be able to follow this lead in supporting IRM by promoting Grand Prix racing boats in their forthcoming events including the next Admiral’s Cup. David Aisher, a member of the executive committee and Vice Commodore of the RORC, was requested to ask the RORC, which he stated was 100 per cent behind IRM, to actively set out to change the perception, that exists today, that they are unwilling to purposefully promote the IRM Rule.