Hi George,
Good to hear the funny characters before and after the classes name have gone for you from the classes drop down list. One step forward 
Can you try something please. Create a new series then create a new competitor, use ‘New’ button toolbar. Now type ‘osprey’ without the quotes into the class box, then click down arrow and you should see ‘OSPREY’ without the quotes highlighted.
If you see the same I think you have the RYA PN numbers loaded.
Sailwave lists the classes in alphabetical order in the drop down list, intermingling RYA PN & SCHRS ratings. In addition once you have selected a class/classes it/they will appear first in the list and although you have typed a new class name it is not jumped to in the list, one has to scroll through to find it.
FYI - if you had not spotted the announcement , Sailwave v2-33-02 is available via link in this thread the last post Irish Sailing plugin in version 2.30 - #2 by Sailwave
I look forward to helping you resolve your issues.
Kind regards,
Huw