Out at sea.

A practical programme tackling deliveries, seeking out more young entries, formalities – they’re all on the agenda for the new season

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A new look EAORA will look for even greater success and racing participation in its 2011 season.

Much was said last year about the apparent decline in the number of boats out racing and the difficulties owners and crews are finding in supporting a full offshore race programme. That often involves delivering boats to and from different rivers around the east coast.

Time, family and financial pressures play a key part in this, so addressing these issues and ensuring that the racing EAORA offers its competitors is relevant and desirable has resulted in New Generation EAORA 2011.

Assessment of success or failure is difficult to judge. Is it the number of entrants, number of boats crossing the start line, total numbers of sailors out racing, total number of sailors in the clubs after racing, number of races, distance raced or some other measure? Obviously all can be relevant and clearly there is no single measure of success. It is important that any body organising racing, and EAORA is no exception, reviews its programme, and attempts to appeal to as wide an IRC audience as possible, embracing experienced and not so experienced sailors, sailing on a range of budgets.

EAORA also wishes to help skippers and crew make the transition from club racing to offshore racing as easy as possible, but achieving all this in one season will not be easy. The EAORA committee knows that it will take time and patience to see the benefits of changes and will be working closer with the other east coast organisations and regattas to fit racing into the already busy calendar.

However the EAORA committee is clear that the core of EAORA and its heritage must be the fostering of interest and skill in offshore racing. This will be achieved by encouraging the next generation of racers, vital to our lifeblood and we are once again indebted to “Insure & Go” for its continued support of the EAORA youth programme.

The highlights of the new EAORA programme start with the introduction of ISAF special regulation category four races with shorter, coastal courses and an overall coastal champion added to the season’s trophy list.

Following RORC’s policy of self-safety checking, this will now be introduced with random spot checks during the season. Our committed safety checkers will continue to be on hand to help any skipper who wants help and advice when preparing their boat.

For boats who may not have thought about obtaining an IRC rating, this will now be possible by getting their certificates through EAORA, at a discount. Committee member Peter Ward will be looking after this and working closely with Faith Lawson in the RORC rating office whose GBR IRC committee is keen to encourage new IRC racers.

The new look programme starts later in the season, reduces the number of races, and has less back-to-back weekends giving Sunday as the delivery day home or if a back-to-back is planned, it incorporates a bank holiday weekend. Feeder races have been put in to help competitors have their boats in the right water for key regattas and the IRC East Coast Championships, this year being held at Ramsgate. The number of races to count to qualify for the season’s points has also been reduced to encourage boats to do that one extra race.

The highlight for the EAORA 2011 programme must be the Crouch Yacht Club’s Houghton Cup, a 120-mile night race starting and finishing in Burnham on Crouch. The Houghton Cup Centenary Race, for one of the oldest offshore trophies in UK waters, has been designed to re-create as closely as possible the original course which was first raced in 1911. Four years after the formation of the Crouch Yacht Club in 1907 Sidney Houghton presented the Houghton Cup to the club for an offshore race which was to be a real test of seamanship, navigation and endurance.

The original course of around 80 miles went out from Burnham, through the Ray Sand and Wallett channels, around the Cork and Sunk lightships and back to Burnham via the East Swin and Whitaker channels. It was an over-night race starting around 6pm and as usual all competitors had to tow their dinghies.

This race was claimed to be the longest offshore race in UK waters for small boats not carrying any paid hands and created considerable attention in the yachting press. Journalists describing the event laid particular stress on the distance involved, the challenge of sailing at night, the perils of sailing amidst unlit sandbanks and the importance of skilful navigation over pure speed.

Because of the new Sunk traffic separation scheme and the requirement to cover a greater distance of over 120 miles as a Fastnet qualifier, the new course takes in the two Greater Gabbard wind farms and the Gunfleet Sands wind farm while also rounding the Sunk centre and the approximate position of the original Cork lightship, which will be just as much of a challenge as it was 100 years ago.

Long passage races, raced at ISAF Category 3, will still be the core of EAORA and a new points multiplier will be added to the four North Sea crossing races. The Jane’s Cup sadly will not be raced in 2011.

EAORA promises Commodore Mike Wallis and all at Medway Yacht Club that we will be back for 2012. Full details are still being finalised by the committee directed by principle race officer Brian Bolton.

We hope that the new sailing instructions, coupled with a sharper race programme, will encourage more boats, different types of boats, past EAORA boats and new club boats to come out and enjoy the challenge, camaraderie and competitive offshore racing that EAORA uniquely offers on the east coast.

Please contact any committee member should you wish to discuss anything about the new generation EAORA. Contact details can be found on www.eaora.org.uk