Newport-Bermuda Race 2024 Will be Scored Using a Forecast Time Correction Factor For "Luck"

3rd December 2023

WM Nixon

The classic and very successful McCurdy 48 Carina had a sweeping overall victory in the 2010 Newport-Bermuda Race, thanks to taking a flyer 50 miles to the westward of the bulk of the fleet during the 630-mile beat to "The Onion Patch"

The biennial 635-mile Newport RI-Bermuda Race in June is one of the world's offshore classics, and as its route takes the fleet across the wayward Gulf Stream while it is in the process of becoming the North Atlantic Drift, weird weather may emerge, and some boats have been known to pull off startling wins.

Most of us would surely have thought this is an integral part of the race's sporting challenge, but the BROC-folk - otherwise, the Cruising Club of America's Race Organising Committee - feel that even this great unknown can be brought under some sort of control, and their latest bulletin tells us of this intriguing project:

"How often have you thought the other boat experienced 'lucky' weather?

The Bermuda Race Organizing Committee (BROC) is proud to announce that the 2024 race will be the first Ocean Race to use Forecast - Time Correction Factor (F-TCF) as a scoring model. The intention to use F-TCF scoring was communicated in the 2024 NOR published in June (now amended), and we are sharing additional details about this innovative scoring method.

The BROC is always considering opportunities to improve the fairness of our race and a major target for improvement has been the scoring method.

After careful consideration and analysis, the BROC is confident that F-TCF offers a substantial improvement in fairness and clarity over the previously used method, Performance Curve Scoring (PCS).

What is F-TCF, and how does it work?

Hours before the start of the race, a predicted elapsed time to finish for every boat will be determined using timely weather and current grib files and each boat's polar file to determine the optimized route using Expedition.

Within each division, a forecast-time correction factor (F-TCF) will be calculated for each boat. The F-TCF is the ratio of a scratch boat's predicted elapsed time to complete the course, to the predicted elapsed time of each boat in the division.

The F-TCF for every boat will be communicated to the fleet the morning of the race.

The corrected finish time for any boat can be calculated by multiplying the F-TCF for a boat by the actual elapsed time (plus any penalties) for that boat.

A rank order of corrected finish times by class and division will determine the order of finish for each class and division".

So now you know.

Published in Offshore

Tagged under

NewportBermuda Race 2024

About The Author

WM Nixon

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William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland for many years in print and online, and his work has appeared internationally in magazines and books. His own experience ranges from club sailing to international offshore events, and he has cruised extensively under sail, often in his own boats which have ranged in size from an 11ft dinghy to a 35ft cruiser-racer. He has also been involved in the administration of several sailing organisations.

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