The Royal Ocean Racing Club’s offshore racing season continued this past weekend with the fourth race of the RORC Season’s Points Championship. Designed to last 24-36 hours, the De Guingand Bowl Race starts and finishes in the Solent and is a flexi-course allowing the Royal Ocean Racing Club to design a bespoke course. “Without the constraint of finishing the race in a totally different location, we concentrate on the weather and tidal conditions to decide the course,” explains RORC Racing Manager, Nick Elliott. “We try to get all of the fleet to finish the first leg in the same tidal vector, so as to avoid a tidal gate early in the race and that is often why we start the slower yachts first. After that, wherever possible, we try to set turning marks that give tactical options to yachts during the race, although trying to predict exact wind speed and direction can be difficult. The race should last over 24 hours but the breeze looks to be changing over the weekend and that will be a factor in what is possible with the course.” This year