SEILmagasinet · video

What this video covers

A Norwegian programmer named Jostein Hellerud built a free hobby website that pulls data from the ORC database and presents sailboat rating certificates in a searchable, comparable format.0:08 The site lets sailors look up any registered boat by sail number, compare ORC polar speed data across wind angles and wind speeds, and run informal head-to-head comparisons between boats — what Hellerud calls a "mini-regatta."0:33 ORC certificates contain theoretical boat speeds for every wind angle and wind speed, data that most sailors ignore but that reveals, for example, whether to sail lower on a run in light air, when to plane, and how high to point upwind as breeze builds.1:01 The site surfaces those numbers as graphs and tables.1:34 Hellerud notes the ORC database has data-quality inconsistencies — identical boat models sometimes show different mast heights, beam, or displacement — and recommends cross-checking the site's output against the original paper certificate, which includes a hull drawing that can visually expose measurement errors.8:40 The site is free to use. The practical takeaway: ORC polar data already tells a sailor how fast their boat should go in any condition; the challenge is sailing to that number.

Boats in this video

More from SEILmagasinet

Lift Ocean takes aim at sailing on a flight.Aug 2026Every boat has its own storyAug 2026XR 41: X-Yachts back to its rootsAug 2026A Knack for Sailing: Christen With on 60 years in the service of sailingAug 2026

From SEILmagasinet — see the channel’s boat, crew, and every analysed video.

The Sailing Directory Newsletter

One email with the fleet's best finds — the moments, boats, and stories worth your watch time. Enter your own address to get your own copy.