Primarily due to safety concerns, the NYYC is planning to sail the IRC classes on two adjacent courses. 60+ IRC yachts ranging in size from 36’ to 90’ will be divided into six classes.

In the past, we have tried to run all IRC & Onion Patch boats on the same course and around the same length course. This put many different size and speed boats rounding marks at the same time and created potentially dangerous situations that we have deemed unacceptable. We also feel that forcing the wide range of boats to sail on the same circle, and for the first race of each day, the same length course (which also required it to be very short for the faster boats) compromised the racing for the fleet in
general, particularly those not competing in the Onion Patch. This yyear, 24 of the 60 IRC entries are also entered in the Onion Patch.
After a lengthy discussion with US-IRC, it was felt that scoring could be done equitably for the range of Onion Patch boats by dividing their corrected time by the course distance, resulting in a ranking of sec./mi. that would indicate each boat’s performance in that race. In theory, if everyone sailed exactly to their rating, they would all have an identical sec/mi number. This method of comparative scoring has been used at the US-IRC Nationals to compare the class winners for the overall award.
H. Charles Tatem, Chairman – Onion Patch Committee - Dated: 9th June 2010