First Time Guide — An essential guide to joining the Bay Regatta.
Entries
Entry to The Bay Regatta can be completed online or manually via fax.
The Notice of Regatta was published on the 1st January (Updated 20th January). It should be noted that we give an early bird discounted entry fee to those who enter and pay prior to the 14th February 2015. For payment received after this date a late entry fee is applied.
Any updates to the NOR will be published in the Race documents section
Rating Systems
If you are entering one of the handicap classes (IRC for monohulls - including bareboats and sportsboats, OMR for multihulls or NHC for cruising boats) then you will need to obtain an up-to-date rating. However, you can enter The Bay Regatta before you have your rating - please just make sure you allow enough time for the administration to go through.
The Bay Regatta uses three different rating systems, IRC and NHC for monohulls and OMR for multihulls. These give good racing within the handicap classes to boat types where there are not enough of them to have their own one-design class. Details of the systems are provided below:
The OMR rating system is used by offshore multihulls and is administered in Thailand by Mark Pescott who can be contacted at HERE. Typically about a dozen of these fast and exciting boats take part in The Bay Regatta.
IRC is a fully international rating system that is used by many thousands of boats worldwide. The Bay Regatta has 2 IRC classes plus the Bareboat class racing under this system depending on entries. This ensures tight rating bands and close racing in fleets of between 10 - 15 boats. Ratings can be obtained from: http://www.irc-sea.com
The National Handicap for Cruisers replaces the ThaiCap systems for Cruisers.
The NHC has been designed to promote a single National Handicap scheme for Cruisers, giving regattas a uniform scheme that can be easily adopted for racing.
NHC uses known concepts used internationally in many other countries to analyse and adjust handicap numbers. NHC is also designed to promote participation in the sport and works alongside IRC.
NHC handicaps individual boats as no two cruisers are the same through elements such as sail size and configuration, number of crew, weight of the boat, equipment on board, engine type, number of berths, etc etc.
All boats taking part in a NHC race for the first time will need a starting handicap. The Base list will be created from a rating formula using “boat show” data such as sail area, hull length, beam, weight etc.
Handicaps will be adjusted during the regatta. The adjustments to handicap numbers in a regatta series will be relatively quick so as to get handicap numbers relatively accurate after the first couple of races.
At The Bay Regatta, we offer cruisers that do not normally race the chance to take part in the regatta using the NHC system. This is especially aimed at cruising boats taking part in the regatta for the first time. If you do not already have an NHC rating and wish to enter this class then please contact us. Click Here to request Handicap
