Boats in this international class are not limited in length and have overhangs beyond their waterline endings making them light, sleek, seaworthy and fast. This IRSA international rule is based on the 1887 ‘length and sail area rule’ which allows short waterline length boats to have a big sail area and longer LWL boats have smaller sails. It is an ‘open’ rule with great freedom to develop design and construction, particularly in rigs and sail plans.
Any boat can be a 10 Rater and several Marbleheads have been successful in the class by conversion with just one larger rig giving 40% extra sail area. A typical 10 Rater is approximately 1600mm long, with a water line length of approximate 1500 mm, weighs 6kg and carries one square metre of sail.
Like the Marblehead, the open rule with its “no limits” approach has resulted in escalating costs resulting from the use of advanced materials and multiple rigs. This once numerous class is now much reduced and again like the Marblehead, there exists the opportunity to revive the class in a restricted vintage form.
January 2018 News
The IRSA Technical Committee has issued an update for the 10 R Class Rules here.
and the Class Rules may be found here