Fast, Fun & Unforgiving
The Sailing Anarchy GP Rule

By Antony Barran

Over two years ago the big three of offshore racing (RORC, ORC and US Sailing) announced a Rule Working Party to develop a new Grand Prix Rule. The target date they set for delivery of the new rule was June 2004. The process began with a survey of sailors to find out what they wanted. What did they learn? That sailors and owners alike wanted fast, fun boats to sail. I really try not to sound too cynical when I say "duh".

Since then seemingly nothing except a bunch of back room politics have occurred. The only tangible result is that US Sailing has picked up their toys and gone their own merry way, forming yet another committee (something about a "…just like we need a hole in the head" comes to mind). This petulant behavior has served no one but themselves. While Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Far East continue to churn out custom and semi-custom boats from a ton of designers the US is left wallowing in the backwash of no new boats and no new production. So I guess, from US Sailing's perspective "what's the rush?"

The rush is that as we kill off the great regattas (Kenwood Cup and SORC to name a couple) we are also killing the profession of Naval Architecture and custom boat building. Since there is no rule worth building to; no owners are. Thus, there is nothing for the designers and builders to do except pack up their bags and find a new profession.

But the hope is that a new rule would cure this trend. Obviously, however, the guys in the driver's seat, at US Sailing, all have too much baggage. As a result they are unable to compromise enough to actually create a new rule. Let alone one the majority would agree is a Grand Prix Rule. The process seems to be going nowhere, unless management by committee is your cup of tea.

So a few of us Anarchists, pissed off at the way things have gone, got together (initially in Hamble) and began discussing it. Drinks again the next night, this time in Portsmouth, took it a step further. Before you knew it we had the Sailing Anarchy GP RWP. Hey, if they can do it so can we. What was the outcome? Well, with the input of a couple of Naval Architects, Sailmakers, owners and crew we came up with our proposal in a grand total of 7 days. We'd also like to thank the companies that provided the inspiration: Fuller's Brewing, Fosters, Budweiser, Corona, Stolytchnaya, and Goldschlager, to name a few. Maybe the other RWP's didn't allow drinking in their meetings. Maybe that was their problem.

The first thing we did was define a GP boat:

1. Fast…as in the fastest thing possible. This caused us to eliminate the speed limits.
2. Simple…easy to measure, easy to understand. There are only four things to measure: length, draft, mast height and stability.
3. Fair…no stored energy - we all know it's cheating, regardless of what the "One Design" rules say.
4. Open…no secrecy.
5. Fast…we mean really, really fast…it can't be said enough (especially if you look at the current crop of IMS boats - yeah, we really buy that VPP's work…NOT!).

The rest was easy. The goal of this is to have a rule that allows owners, crew, architects and sailmakers to push the limit. Heck, a good GP boat is an uncompromised, unforgiving, and unbelievably fast. Frankly, it should scare the heck out of the pro's 60% of the time. Grand Prix should be the arena in which Darwin rules, not a committee.

So here it is, the Sailing Anarchy Grand Prix Rule, the entire thing fits on a quarter of a page.

Sailing Anarchy GP Rule
2004

Boats should be fun, fast and open to creative and innovative approaches. Grand Prix boats should push the envelope of design…safely. Designers and owners should be free to experiment; rules should "let the dogs hunt." The rules need to be simple. And the Grand Prix class needs to be run by a completely Darwinian rule!

1. No Stored Energy
2. Manually adjusted moveable ballast is allowed but handicapped (XF)
3. Mast Height limited to 161.8% of LOA
4. Draft is limited to 25% of LOA
5. Stability must exceed 116 degrees
6. An age allowance.
7. Crew is limited to a number that is no more than 25% of the LOA any more or less carries a penalty/credit
8. Ballast Ratio not to exceed 60%

TCF = ((40 + (LOA-40) x .5)/40) x AF x XF x CF
AF =Age Factor =1 + .0025 per year
XF=X Factor= 1+ .0025 per degree of cant off centerline for canting keels and/or .005 per 180 lbs of moveable ballast.
CF=Crew Factor = 1+ round down LOA x .25 each additionally person is penalized at .005, each fewer person is credited .005

Examples:

40 boat with no moveable ballast that was built in 2004 with a crew of 10
1.0 = ((40)+((40-40) x .5)/40) x 1.0 x 1.0

40 foot boat with no moveable ballast that was built in 2001 with a crew of 13
1.007= ((40)+((40-40) x .5)/40) x (-1+(-3 x .0025)) + 1.0 + ((13- (40 x .25)) x .005)

40 foot boat with a 30 max canting keel and 540 pounds of water ballast built in 2004 with a crew of 10
1.09= ((40) + ((40-40) x .5)/40) x (1.0) x (1+(30 x .0025))
+ (.005 x (540/180))) x (((40 x .25)-10)*.005)