Industry Partners:

"Trial Certificates"

The underlying purpose of an IRC trial certificate is to allow an owner to assess the effect of a proposed modification to his boat which because of the confidential nature of IRC he is unable to calculate for himself.

A parallel is what is known as a 'designer trial'. This is a trial certificate issued to a designer based on design data before construction of a boat to enable the designer to estimate to the owner what the boat will rate.

Noting IR2000 rule 2.3: The Rule discourages unnecessary expense at all levels, it is essential that a trial certificate system is in place. However, it is also essential that this system is controlled to prevent abuse and hence 'leakage' of the confidential elements of the rule.

The RORC Rating Office has seen an increase recently in trial certificates and specifically in designer trial certificates giving rise to cause for concern about confidentiality. In the interests therefore of satisfying both of the above, the following offers guidance on the number and type of trial certificates that will be issued.

1. The RORC rating Office reserves the right to refuse to issue a trial certificate without stating a reason and to amend these conditions at any time without notice and without stating any reason.
2. The following is given as guidance only. There will inevitably be exceptions which will be treated on an individual basis.
3. All requests for trial certificates shall specify definitive data. Trials of the form 'What must E be to achieve a TCC of x.xxx?' will not be issued.
4. Requests for trial certificates should be accompanied by a drawing showing hull, appendages, fitout, rig, etc. as appropriate. This will always be the case for designer trial certificates.
5. Discrete series of trial certificates, exploring the effect of incrementally varying a single variable, will not be issued.
6. Not more than 6 trial certificates will be permitted in any one calendar year for any existing boat. Not more than 3 of these may concern modifications to the hull or appendages.
7. Not more than 25 designer trial certificates will be issued to any one design office in any one calendar year. Within this number, not more than 6 will be issued in any 2 metre range of LOA, of which not more than 3 may concern variations to the hull, appendages or weight.
8. Requests for designer trials shall clearly identify the boat and any previous designer trials issued for that boat.

Rating Office February 2001

New rules regarding new boats and design trials
Ref IRC and the Sports Boat Rule

As you may be aware, apart from the trial certificates which can be run for a currently rated boat, we also offer trial certificates for new boats and designs.

To avoid any grey areas, we will be changing our policy slightly regarding this. Please note the following which will be applied from Jan 1st 2004.

1. For designs (including one-offs) that are still on the drawing board, ie. not built or in-build, and none on the water, we will charge the "design trial" fee ie. half the normal application fee (in 2004: £3.85/metre ex vat). As soon as a boat to that design is built then that boat must make a full application.
2. For existing boats or designs ie. there are boats to the design built, where a trial is required by an owner/agent/designer for the design rather than for a specific boat, the full application fee will apply (in 2004: £7.70/metre ex vat). Specific boats must make a full normal application.

The limit on the number of trials that may be run in one certificate year remain the same - click here.

If you have any questions please contact the Rating Office

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