Portoroz, Slovenia - Organizers from the Yacht Club Marina Portoroz (YCMP) and the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) are pleased to announce the opening for entries to this year's ORC Sportboat European Championship. 

Held over 24-30 August in Portoroz, Slovenia, this ORC championship event will be open to yachts that fit the following ORC Sportboat parameters:

- length from 6.00 - 9.15 m
- displacement less than 2000 kg
- displacement/length ratio (DSPM/LSM03) less than 3.70 for Division A
- displacement/length ratio (DSPM/LSM03) less than 6.00 for Divisions B and C

After three days of measurement from 24-26 August, racing will start with a coastal race on Tuesday 27 August, followed by three days of six inshore races until Friday 30 August, the closing date for the event. Inshore racing will take place in the Bay of Piran very near the venue at Marina Portoroz, with the length and location of the coastal race options determined by organizers in the Sailing Instructions.

The area is in the same general region and only a few miles south of where the ORC Worlds 2017 were held in Trieste.

Marina Pororoz is a full-service facility and equipped to accommodate the needs of a large fleet of visiting Sportboats, including easy road access, launching, hauling and berthing facilities, repair equipment and facilities and storage areas for boats and trailer. For the regatta, marina areas will be assigned for all regatta functions - technical and social.


Trophies will be awarded to the top three teams in each division, along with awards for Corinthian teams with all-Group 1 (amateur) skippers and crew members.

For those interested to attend who cannot bring their own boat, CleanSport in nearby Izola is offering charter deals from their fleet of six new Simonis-designed Far East 28R's, a proven performer in ORC Sportboat rules. More info can be obtained by visiting www.cleansport.si/en/fareast-28r_1.html, writing to info@cleansport.si or calling +386 40 550 520.

"We are accustomed to hosting major regatta events," said David Bartol of YCMP, "and very much look forward to welcoming the ORC Sportboat fleet to Portoroz. The race conditions in August should be perfect with reliable seabreezes giving the fleet a suitable challenge for buoy racing as well as coastal racing in the Bay of Piran."

"The ORC Sportboats are the smallest in size of the specialized ORC fleets," said ORC Chairman Bruno Finzi, referring to ORC's rule systems for Superyachts and now Multihulls as well - these are in addition to the ORC Club and ORC International systems that generate over 10,000 certificates a year around the world for general fleet use.

"Yet Sportboats are very popular and there are fleets in numerous areas around the world that use this system. We look forward to have our technical team working with the participants, organizers and sponsors to create a competitive and enjoyable event, and invite teams to come to Portoroz from all over Europe and the world to enjoy fair and close racing."

For more information and entry, visit the event website at www.ycmp.eu.

More on ORC rating systems, ORC certificates and events can be found at www.orc.org.

Since 1969, ORC has been a world leader in providing a scientific and transparent rating system used to create fair racing among a broad variety of boat types, from Sportboats to Superyachts. Nearly 10,000 ORC certificates were issued to boats from 45 countries by 35 ORC national rating offices in 2018. Since 1999 ORC has organized annual ORC World Championships, in 2018 a combined IRC/ORC Offshore World Championship, and other inshore and offshore racing events sanctioned by World Sailing, with recent events attracting over 100 entries from dozens of countries around the world.

www.orc.org