By Bill Lee
If you are responsible for organizing a sailboat race or regatta for boats of varying speeds and design, you need to use a handicapping rule to fairly score the racing. At the Offshore Racing Association, we’re commonly asked which of our two popular rules should be used – ORR or ORR-Ez? Let’s start by summarizing the rules.
What is ORR?
ORR is a measurement rule that accounts for various speed-affecting factors such as displacement, draft, stability, propeller drag, sail plan and sail inventory. All of these items are professionally measured. All are processed through the ORA’s Velocity Prediction Program (VPP), yielding predicted speeds and different ratings for different uses. The cost is higher, but there is much higher confidence in the ratings. ORR is a pure measurement rule and no subjective factors are allowed. Lastly, with professional data, rating protests are easier to resolve.
What is ORR-Ez?
ORR-Ez takes all of these same things into account, but allows lower-cost owner-declared measurements in place of professional measurements. For designs where designer lines are no longer available, the Ez team will approximate a hull shape. The same VPP is used. However, for ORR-Ez, if the predicted speeds appear either too fast or too slow, the ORR-Ez administrators may apply subjective factors to adjust the predicted speeds as needed. Because ORR-Ez allows owner-declared measurement, costs are much lower. Read on.