The boat that the ILC30 rule produces is a lovely boat to sail. It is fast, responsive and fun to sail. It is possible to design faster 30 footers but the challenge of designing to the IMS would not be there. The owners also appreciate and enjoy the whole business of choosing their own designer, getting involved in technical matters and working out their game plan.

This design challenge is very real. It takes many times longer than a IOR design. To run through the permutations and achieve full understanding of the rule takes for ever. It is not uncommon to discover things that the rule makers may not initially intended to have such an impact. Take an example - Who would have guessed that a measurement of Chainplate width (Ostensibly added to the IMS measurement procedure for databases purposes only) would have a pretty drastic effect on ILC30 predicted speeds!

The real threat to the future of the ILC30 is as usual the decisions that the ORC has and will make in the future. I have lost confidence in what they do. They don't have the necessary funds to run such a complex handicap system as IMS and many of the problems we have now are the direct result of policy/management decisions. The people running it lost the plot..

The cost of the boat is an issue. I reckon that you need L80k to go sailing on a winning boat. Measurement and design costs are a worry. The boat itself is good value-for-money (except for the Carbon Mast issue) but the owners are less happy spending so much time and money optimising the boats. Its much worse than IOR.

Another concern is that a boat optimised for the ILC30 rule is not necessarily "best" for open IMS. This is specially true if the committees continue this misguided idea of using GPH single figure to score the races. This must be stopped or else a new breed of boats will appear! Take note...

The scientific and politic aims clash badly under IMS. Mistrust and ignorance is not helping smooth the way forward. A miracle, or something close to it, is required to straighten the world of sailing.

As far as the ILC30 is concerned, there is no doubt that it produces a very nice boat to sail, reasonably priced - A desirable racing boat. If we can keep the costs from escalating this will become a class worth having.

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