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Pro Sailors Sink While Racing Bahamian Sloop

The Star Sailors League in Nassau last week had probably the most decorated field of sailors ever seen on a starting line – 16 Olympic medalists with 10 gold, 10 silver and 12 bronze medals, joined by two Volvo Ocean Race winners and other notables. After the championship racing, some of them joined the locals to race Bahamian sloops – over canvassed, low freeboard wooden boats with pry boards for hiking. I got drafted to sail with two world champions, an Olympic silver medalist and a European champion. We sank.

I’m at the end of the aft pry board while Jonas Høgh Christensen (Finn Silver medalist in London) and Taylor Canfield (blue shirt, Match Racing world champion) on the forward pry board listen to our Bahamian tactician Warren Adderley. Star world champion George Szabo was on the helm and European champion Johannes Polgar was trimming the main. Click the photos to see the video.

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2017 Racing in Bermuda – Three Phases

The America’s Cup Match is the final and most important phase, between defender Oracle Team USA and the winner of the “Challenger Playoffs” (formerly known as the Louis Vuitton Cup). Racing begins on 26 May 2017 with the double round robin “America’s Cup Qualifiers.” All six teams, including defender Oracle, race in the round robin. One challenger is then eliminated. The four remaining challengers go into the “Challenger Playoffs” for first-to-five-points semi-finals and and finals. The America’s Cup Match is first-to-seven-points. If either team in the America’s Cup Match won the Qualifiers, their opponent starts with a score of minus one (-1). This is for the TV schedule, to increase the likelihood of the AC Match being completed on the second Sunday, 25 June.

The America’s Cup World Series finished last month. Winner Land Rover BAR earned two points in the AC Qualifiers; runner-up Oracle earned one. Leaderboard for the round robin AC Qualifiers that begin 26 May 2017 in Bermuda:

Land Rover BAR and Oracle earned the bonus points from the AC World Series. At the end of the Qualifiers, ties will be broken according to the final results of the AC World Series.

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Penalties – Don’t Tack or Gybe

Groupama Team France and Emirates Team New Zealand both got penalties in Race 5 in Fukuoka after tangling with Land Rover BAR. Team France completed a gybe before the penalty was assigned. Inexplicably, the Kiwis tacked while carrying the penalty, earning a second penalty (per Rule 44.4(c) for you rules mavens. Download the Racing Rules of Sailing – America’s Cup Edition here). Click the photos to see the video. Interestingly, ETNZ made the same mistake in the Naples AC World Series in 2013, after getting a penalty for crashing into Luna Rossa. Read about that incident here.

Remember: the blue light means a boat has a penalty; the green light means they are near a course boundary or a rounding mark.

Here we see how Team France picked up a penalty for not keeping clear and making contact with BAR near the leeward gate in Race 5.

Team New Zealand had a double penalty in Race 5.

 

 

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Rules Change – Spare Daggerboards

Is this for rules geeks only? Or will it be important when the racing starts?

Teams are only allowed four daggerboards total for their race yacht. As the article above says, they are likely to build a pair for light wind and a pair for medium to heavy conditions. Realizing that damaging even one board could mean losing the competition, in October the competitors introduced a Protocol amendment to allow “replacement daggerboards.” Any of a team’s AC45X daggerboards could be used as replacements, which should cover any situation. Only two replacement boards are allowed to be used, but that seems likely to be enough.

If you want more details you can download the latest Protocol here and read Article 35.10 (f) for more info.

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What the Designers Have Been Doing

You probably know that the AC Class yachts that will race in 2017 are largely one design – the shape of the wing, the hulls, the pod under the wing and the crossbeams are all fixed by the class rule. The same is true for cockpits and grinding pedestal positions. This leaves aerodynamic fairings, daggerboard shapes, rudder shapes, wing internal structures and control systems as the area for the designers to work their magic. The teams have been testing design ideas on their “AC45X” experimental boats – sometimes called “turbo” or “sport” boats.

Daggerboard design

In light air the boats will need longer wings on the daggerboards to provide enough lift for foiling. In stronger winds teams will use shorter wings with lower drag. Crossover conditions will be challenging to decide whether to use the high lift or the low drag boards. There has been a lot of talk about upwind foiling and foiling tacks, but those techniques require sailing longer distance over a less direct course.

You can see the long wing and the reverse curve of the daggerboard on the port side of Emirates Team New Zealand’s AC45X test boat. On the starboard side you can see how the reverse curve gets the board out to the maximum beam to increase righting moment. (The sea otter seems to want a close look.)

In a New York Times article, Oracle designer Scott Ferguson talks about longer daggerboard wings for light air and shorter daggerboard wings for medium to heavy air. Like the Kiwis, Oracle has been testing longer foil wings as this photo shows:

Rudders and boat building strategy

Groupama Team France mounted their rudders in the hulls so they can save money by using the rudders from the test boat in their race boat.

Land Rover BAR and Emirates Team New Zealand wanted to test the geometry of the slightly longer AC Class race boat, so they built special rudders that could be hung on gantries off the stern.

Team France and ETNZ will use most of the components of their test boat to build their race boat, saving money. Essentially, they will just change the hulls. Like Oracle, Artemis and Team Japan, BAR will have a test boat and a race boat in Bermuda so they can do two boat testing.

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Results from Fukuoka

All six races were run in light, shifty conditions. Land Rover BAR and Artemis Racing tied on points, with BAR winning the regatta by finishing ahead of Artemis in the final race. Oracle finished third. Team New Zealand finished off the podium again and out of the points for the overall series. They were hurt by a poor sail choice in the last race, when they kept their jib in its bag and sailed upwind with their big Code 0 while all the others were using jibs.

In the first race on Sunday, BAR picked up a penalty in the pre-start but were able to push both Oracle and Team New Zealand past the end of the starting line, preventing both of those teams from threatening the Brits’ overall series lead.

There were several interesting penalty situations that I’ll explain in next week’s newsletter.

Remember: the blue light means a boat has a penalty; the green light means they are near a course boundary or a rounding mark.

Here we see how Team France picked up a penalty for not keeping clear and making contact with BAR near the leeward gate in Race 5.

Team New Zealand had a double penalty in Race 5. I’m getting a clarification and will explain it next week. If you want to get a head start on understanding what happened, read Rule 44.4(c) in the Racing Rules of Sailing – AC Edition, which you can download here.

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AC World Series Final Standings

The AC Qualifiers begin on 26 May 2017 and will eliminate one challenger. The winner of the Qualitiers – Oracle or a challenger – will earn a one point lead to start the America’s Cup Match.

At the AC World Series in Fukuoka, BAR extended their lead. Oracle stayed ahead of Team New Zealand. Artemis Racing moved ahead of SoftBank Team Japan, the only change in the leaderboard.

Remember that these standings will be used as the tie-breaker at the end of the AC Qualifiers – they could determine which challenger is eliminated and who gets a one point lead in the America’s Cup Match.

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Ruthless Move in Final Race Surprised Spithill

After clinching the AC World Series with one race to spare, Ben Ainslie tried to help Team New Zealand bump Oracle out of second place. Since the winner of the round robin Qualifiers will start the America’s Cup Match with a one point lead, Ainslie got right to work trying to make sure Oracle does not win the Qualifiers by trying to help the Kiwis get the bonus point for second place in the AC World Series.

Oracle received a penalty for not keeping clear of BAR, to leeward. Oracle rounded the first mark in last place but managed to finish ahead of New Zealand and hold on to the bonus point. Click the photo to watch the video. You’ll see the action and hear the post race interviews. Image: ACTV.

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Who to Watch

Each team is allowed 11 people who can “touch the boat” – the five man (highlighted in yellow) crew plus shore team and possibly a spare sailor (highlighted in red).

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Why Watch

Standings going into the AC World Series Fukuoka:

At the end of racing on Sunday, we’ll know who won the bonus points for the AC Qualifiers next May (dates here). The Qualifiers will eliminate one challenger and give Oracle or a challenger a one point lead to start the America’s Cup Match.

For this final AC World Series event, the obvious competition is between Land Rover BAR and Oracle for first place and two bonus points. With a 14 point lead BAR are in a good position to win the series. Let’s take an example to see why this is true: If Oracle were to finish one place ahead of BAR in each race on Saturday and two places ahead of them in each race on Sunday, Oracle would score 15 more points than BAR and just squeak into first place. Who wants to bet on that? For our Kiwi fans, to win the series, ETNZ would need to finish two places ahead of BAR in every race, Saturday and Sunday to get ahead of BAR.

I’ll be watching the battle between Oracle and ETNZ for second place, with its one bonus point reward. With only three points between them, that looks like where the real action will be.

Oh, by the way… They sailed a “reserve race” today, Friday. It will count if there is no racing on Saturday – quite possible with the forecast for very light wind. Who won that race? BAR, with Oracle second. Anyone want to bet against BAR to win the series?

You can hear team owner Larry Ellison’s comments on the practice racing here:

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How to Watch

Good news: The racing will be livestreamed on Facebook: Live streaming available via the Official America’s Cup Facebook page

Bad news: The livestream will be blacked out in the UK, France and certain other countries.

  • 18 November 23.00-00.30 ET
  • 19 November 23.00-00.30 ET

Find the viewing options for your country here.

Race schedule (local time in Fukuoka).

Follow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram:

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Sumo and Sailing

The final AC World Series is happening during the last Basho (Grand Tournament) of the 2016 sumo season at the Fukuoka Kokusai Center. Land Rover BAR visited with some of the wrestlers at their heya (training stable). Jono Macbeth, Ed Powys and Giles Scott decided to enter the dohyō (ring). When you see the video you’ll probably agree that Jono, Ed and Giles should stick to sailing. Click the photo below to watch.

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Bremont – Missing in Action

It looks like the sponsorship leaderboard has been shuffled. Official Timekeeper and sponsor Bremont no longer appears on the ACEA “Partners” web page. And, they are gone from Oracle’s boat, too. Their America’s Cup Collection watches are still on offer on their web page.

Some flat black paint covers the Bremont logo in the photo above. An earlier photo, below, still had the logo.

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Understanding the Arithmetic Going into Fukuoka

In spite of breathless reports which explain that the winner of a race on Sunday scores 20 points, it won’t be so easy for any of the teams to move up the leaderboard. Consider this: If the weather cooperates and all races are sailed, the most one team can improve over another is 45 points. And this would mean one team wins every race, scoring a total of 90 points for the regatta, while the other team comes in last in every race, scoring 45. I give a full explanation of the standings here. Short version: Land Rover BAR is in a strong position to win the series and take the two bonus points. Oracle and Team New Zealand will be battling for second place and the remaining bonus point.

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Oracle Team USA Almost Capsizes Again

In this video, sailing team manager Tom Slingsby credits wing trimmer Tom Johnson with keeping the boat from capsizing last week. Click the photo to play the video. Remember that TJ was also doing wing trim when they did capsize back in March.

Look at the starboard hull! After the nosedive, the cockpits are completely swamped. Doing this in a race next year will lose a lot of distance, waiting for the cockpits to drain! The rule allows drains of 0.01 m2 in area for each cubic meter of volume.

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SoftBank Team Japan Breaks Their Wing

On 26 October the wing on Team Japan’s AC45x test boat broke apart while training in over 20 knots of wind. The lower forward corner of the trailing element – the flap of the wing – gave way and then the entire lower flap segment tore loose. Click the photo to watch the short video. If you stop the video at about four seconds, you can see where the breakage occurs. The wing trim line was holding the lower trailing corner of the wing (equivalent to the clew on a soft mainsail) and the rest of the flap simply blew apart. No one was injured and the team was back out sailing a few days later using their “AC45x” wing, which has a different shape. The wing that broke was their “AC50” wing, which meets the design rule to be used on their race boat next year. I pointed out the difference in shape with photos in this earlier article.

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