RYA (RORC) Handicap ratings. New systems 2024

[Sea Simon]

Has anyone tried to get rated this year?
RYA YTC certificate  is essential for handicap club/regatta racing.

They have only just opened the "new" system for 2024, and there seems to be some surprises/anomalies hereabouts.
This is supposedly a "development " of the earlier RYA YTC handicapping  method. However no workings shown, as yet.

RYA YTC rating have never liked water ballasted boats, and Mark Darleys BC23 "Foxwhelp" suffered accordingly, in past non Swallow events.
They rate such boats "light" , ie with MT ballast tanks ONLY. No option to elect ballast in nor out. Always out, as far as their displacement figure is concerned.  It is possible that this dogma could have safety implications.

I'm  not affected by water ballast, but am continuing  my efforts to get my drop keel (albeit fitted with a bulb) correctly  rated as a drop keel not as it currently  is, as a type 4 (apparently type 5 is the most "radical"/effective/expensive!) Bulbed fixed keel.
My enquiries at RYA have not revealed the keel classification criteria details.

[Sea Simon]

Grace note BC23 # 56, (Carsington) currently rates as considerably faster than my BC 26, probably rated faster even with no spinni, versus my 45m2 assym. Clearly nonsense...imho...

As other BC23s have in the past, but both boats under white sails.

My BC 26 did OK at Swallow Mylor Raid 2023 too, mostly against BC23s (no other 26s, but one Coast 250) - but this was not raced on handicap, otherwise we would have won almost everything (see my other post re RYA/RORC crazy handicapping of Swallow-style water ballast boats!).

Now very difficult,  if not impossible to determine exact boat details from the RORC listings, so the RORC "development" of this system appears to me to be, as my old boss might say "an object lesson in obfuscation"?

[MarkDarley]

Sea Simon,

Yes, "Foxwhelp" BC 23 suffered miserably on her RYA rating at the Royal Dartmouth regatta largely because we suffered going upwind. We did our best to sail without ballast through chop in an effort to satisfy our rating. We had three crew on the rail, but still bobbed about a bit.  (Cruising I would certainly have had ballast in to windward to cut through the chop). Off wind, she went well with the asym up, but the legs were very short.
We did better in the Bay Race with longer legs and lighter air.

In contrast, "Pippin" always does very well when in the company of the OGA.  Of course the OGA rating bears no resemblance to the RYA, particularly as it has no displacement measurement.  And with our ability to have ballast or not, we have an advantage adjusting to the conditions. 
When one old gaffer was overheard to be grumbling about Pippin's water ballast advantage, I suggested they introduce displacement to their calculation.  A nearby old gaffer responded with ;"Do you really think we want to know what our boats weigh?!"

Last year "Pippin" took first and second in the Gaffers class with equal points to the winner (tie break rules say the winner of a tie is the winner of the later race).  If Pippin does not sell before the regatta this year, I intend to reverse that result, although the very lovely "Cynthia" owned by Peter Lucas is always a popular winner.

[Sea Simon]

V interesting Mark, and having raced against you at Mylor last year, I  can see that there's little in Foxwhelps spec, nor your helming ability to have stopped you doing better at Dart! 😉. Pleasure to have met, and raced you!

RORC have been persuaded to correct my keel type...but guess what?
My rating is unchanged... who'd have thought it? 😱.
They also are very reluctant to show their workings...which to me, as a marine technologist/CMarEng, speaks volumes...

RORC, IRC and now YTC etc is some sort of proprietary intellectual property it seems, out of which a few people seem to make a good/satisfying living?

Rather frustrating for us all....?