MORC is a rule that was developed in the mid 1950's for small offshore racing boats up to 24', later raised to 30'. It was based on the Cruising Club of America (CCA) Rule which encouraged and rewarded seaworthy and seakindly boats with shorter masts and longer booms that kept the center of effort and heeling moment down. Accomodations below were rewarded, stripped out hulls were penalized.

Sparkman & Stephens were arguably the experts on converting the CCA Rule for MORC, and Bill Shaw was a young designer working on this project for S&S at the time. As a personal side project Bill designed a 24' boat to see if the MORC Rule changes actually encouraged development of important safety and comfort factors like pitching and righting moments. This design was Trina, the first boat designed to the new MORC rule.

(To be continued)