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America’s Cup Qualifiers Results

America's Cup Qualifiers results

America's Cup Qualifiers results

Oracle won the round robin America's Cup Qualifiers and earned a bonus point for the America's Cup Match. With eight wins, two losses and one bonus point from coming second in the America's Cup World Series, Oracle finished the Qualifiers with nine points. Team New Zealand also finished the Qualifiers 8-2. 

As the top challenger, New Zealand got to choose their opponent in the Challenger Selection semi-finals. They picked Land Rover BAR, leaving Artemis Racing to face SoftBank Team Japan in the other semi-final.

BAR finished the round robin with four wins - two against Team France and, surprisingly, two against Artemis. With two bonus points for winning the America's Cup World Series, BAR finished with six points.

Groupama Team France finished last and was eliminated. With the smallest budget and the least amount of time to train, the French nevertheless had a good run, taking wins from Artemis and BAR. 

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2017 America’s Cup Guide

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THE CUP EXPERIENCE SHOW - DAILY WEBCAST
Calendar
Teams
Scoreboard & Race Results
STANDINGS
America's Cup Qualifiers
Challenger Playoff Semi-Finals
Challenger Playoff Finals
America's Cup Match
Race Course
How to Watch
Television
AC+ App
Red Bull Youth America's Cup
Pool A
Pool B
Finals
Spectator Boats & On-the-Water Guide
Visiting Yachts Guide
Endeavour Program
Endeavour Race Program 
Superyacht Racing
J Class Racing
Race Areas - J Class & Superyachts
Tall Ships - May 26 to June 5
Parties, Concerts, Events

Update - 26 May'17  See "Calendar" /  "Info for Visiting Yachts" /  "Spectator Boats & On-the-Water" Guide"

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Update Sunday 28 May:  Daily webcast at 18:30 Bermuda summer time (UTC-3)

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Calendar

Note: Racing on Friday 26 May postponed because of high wind.  
Six races are now scheduled on both weekend days.
Saturday:  Races 1-6            Highlight:  Race 5  USA vs NZL
Sunday:  Races 7-12            Highlight: Race 10 USA vs SWE

2017 America's Cup Calendar
Download the Calendar

Teams

Scoreboard & Race Results

  • Standings
  • Race Results
  • Tie Break

STANDINGS

America's Cup Qualifiers

All six teams competing, including the defender, Oracle Team USA​

Current Standings - based on America's Cup World Series results​

America's Cup World Series Final Standings

America's Cup World Series Final Standings

Challenger Playoff Semi-Finals

  • Top scoring challenger in the Qualifiers chooses their opponent
  • The other two challengers go to the other semi-final​

Challenger Playoff Finals

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America's Cup Match

Defender - Oracle Team USA vs Challenger - to be decided 10-12 June​

Race Course

America's Cup 2017 in Bermuda - Race Course

How to Watch

Bermuda Dockyard webcam here.

MyIslandHomeBDA YouTube channel here.

Television

Check here for the local broadcaster in your country. You will need to check your broadcaster's schedule to find out what coverage they offer: Live, Replays, Highlights.

USA:​

  • USA: NBC Sports Channel carries LIVE broadcasts of all races in the Qualifiers and Challenger Playoffs.
  • NBC carries LIVE broadcasts of the America's Cup Match.​

AC+ App

Download link for AC+ App here.

*PLEASE NOTE: For the following countries there will be no live video coverage on the AC App, but virtual graphics with commentary only:   United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Monaco, Australia, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela​

Red Bull Youth America's Cup

  • 12 teams - one for each pro team plus six teams selected by Regatta Managers
  • Regatta Managers - two time Olympic gold medalists in Tornado, Roman Hagara and Hans-Peter Steinacher
  • Two pools of six teams, top four from each pool qualify for Finals
  • Each pool has two days of qualifying, three fleet races per day
  • Top four from each pool advance to Finals
  • Finals: two days of fleet racing, three races per day.
  • Prize-giving: Wednesday 21 June after racing

Pool A

  • Artemis Youth Racing - SWE
  • Team France Jeune
  • Kaijin Team Japan
  • Youth Vikings Denmark
  • Team Tilt (SUI)
  • SVB Team Germany

Qualifiers 15-16 June

Time:  14:00 -16:00​

Reserve day 19 June

Pool B

  • Team BDA - Bermuda
  • NZL Sailing Team
  • Land Rover BAR Academy - GBR
  • Spanish Impulse Team
  • Next Generation USA
  • Candidate Sailing Team - AUT

Qualifiers 12-13 June

Time: 17:00 - 19:00  Note time!  

Reserve day 14 June

Finals

Time: 14:00 - 16:00        Place: Great Sound​

20-21 June, reserve day 22 June​

Spectator Boats & On-the-Water Guide

  • VIP Superyacht Race Day Experience with Club Team France - Reserve
  • ACEA Specator Boats - Reserve
  • On-the-Water Guide for Private Yachts - Download

Visiting Yachts Guide

​Last update: 26 May 2017

Downloard "Visiting Yachts Guide"

More info​

Endeavour Program

Endeavour Race Program 

  • 15-16 June:  O'Pen Bic and RS Feva fleet racing
  • 17 June: O'Pen Bic "half-time" regatta
  • 18 June: RS Feva "half-time" regatta​
  • 22-23 June: Hobie Wave fleet races
  • 24 June: Hobie Wave "half-time" regatta

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Superyacht Racing

  • 13,14,15 June - South Shore
  • Watch from on board superyacht Arabella - reserve tickets here

J Class Racing

  • 16,19,20 June - Murray's Anchorage, North Shore
  • Watch from on board superyacht Arabella - reserve tickets here

Race Areas - J Class & Superyachts

America's Cup 2017 in Bermuda - Race Areas

Tall Ships - May 26 to June 5

  • In St. George's 26 May to 1 June
  • Parade to Hamilton on 1 June
  • ​Parties on Front Street: 1 June 19:00-23:00 / 4 June 14:00-21:00
  • Parade to depart Hamilton, sail along North Shore and on to Boston - 5 June

Parties, Concerts, Events

Superyacht "Arabella"

Full Program of Events on Arabella

  • Sunset Cruises
  • Cocktails & Dinner
  • J Class Race Viewing
  • Superyacht Race Viewing
  • Red Bull Youth America's Cup​

Book tickets here.

Parties, Concerts, Events - partial list, more info to come...

  • Fri    26 May    20:30   Opening Ceremony - AC Village 
  • Sat   27 May   17:15 Wyclef Jean Concert - AC Village
  • Sun   28 May   Endeavour Day - AC Village
  • Wed   31 May   11:30   Ladies' Day - AC Village
  • Thu     1 June    Tall Ships Parade to Hamilton from St. George's
  • Thu    1 June    19:00  Tall Ships Street Party - Front Street
  • Thu     1 June   19:00   Race for Water Gala - Caroline Bay Marina - reserve tickets
  • ​Sun     4 June    14:00 Tall Ships Street Party, Front Street
  • Mon     5 June   Tall Ships Parade from Hamilton, Depart for Boston
  • Wed   14 June   Caroline Bay Golf Tournament
  • Wed   14 June   Endeavour Party
  • Fri    16 June    Louis Vuitton Gala - undisclosed location - ask
  • Wed  21 June  19:00  America's Cup Hall of Fame Reception - Caroline Bay Marina
  • Thu  22 June  19:00  Seakeepers Gala - Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute

​

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America’s Cup Test Races – The Results and What They Mean

The five America’s Cup teams in Bermuda held the second series of test races in their America’s Cup Class race boats – 17 races in all. In windy conditions Artemis dominated, winning all nine races, including four against Oracle. Oracle beat everyone else, including three wins against stablemates SoftBank Team Japan. Team Japan lost five races but beat Land Rover BAR and Groupama Team France once each. BAR raced each team once, beating only the French. France raced each team once, losing to everyone.

America’s Cup Practice Racing – 6-12 April 2017

17 Races Were Run

America's Cup Practice Racing Results 6-12 April 2017

Head to Head Results

America's Cup Practice Racing Results 6-12 April 2017

But… All of the teams will continue improving!
France has good straightline speed but are still mastering their boat and the control systems.
BAR has great crew work on a slow boat that they will continue to develop.
Team Japan, like the French, has a fast boat and will continue to improve.
Oracle has heaps of resources and experience at making a comeback.
Artemis will keep getting faster.

And… then there is the mystery team – Emirates Team New Zealand.
We will find out how competitive the Kiwis are during the next training race series – five days beginning Monday 24 April. All reports say they are fast, smooth and confident, as we heard in this interview.

Comments From the The Teams

Oracle Team USA Skipper Jimmy Spithill

Nathan Outteridge and Iain Percy – Artemis Racing

 

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Man Overboard on Groupama Team France’s America’s Cup Class Yacht

Training on America’s Cup Class Race Yacht

Franck Cammas and Groupama Team France lost a man overboard while training on Bermuda's Great Sound for the 2017 America's Cup.
Team France man overboard while training on Bermuda’s Great Sound for the 2017 America’s Cup.

In a full foiling turn the G forces may have surprised this French sailor. He crossed the boat during a fast turn and couldn’t slow down on the other side. Maybe he decided to jump because he remembered that skipper Franck Cammas had his right foot nearly cut off by the rudder wing when he went overboard training in France in November 2015.

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AC Birthdays

Ben Ainslie turned 40 yesterday, 5 February. He shares the date with Groupama Team France’s Thomas Le Breton who turned 35. On New Year’s day, ETNZ’s Peter Burling celebrated his 26th birthday. Speaking of birthdays and sailors’ ages…
No Sport for Old Men
Foiling multihulls are no place for old men. Or so the thinking goes. At age 54, Argentine Santiago Lange won the gold medal in the new Nacra 17 mixed multihull event in Rio. Nine months earlier he had a lung removed after being diagnosed with cancer. The Nacra will be upgraded to foil for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Last week at a conference in Sweden, Santi revealed that he will be campaigning for 2020. He’ll be 58 by then…

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FLASH: 5 Teams Announce AC 2019 and 2021

The heads of five of the six teams met in London last week to announce that their yacht clubs have signed a Framework Agreement outlining the next two editions of the America’s Cup, to be held in 2019 and 2021.

Photo: ACEA

Racing will be held in a modified version of the AC Class yachts being used in 2017 (more details below). No surrogate test boats will be allowed. AC45F’s will be raced in the AC World Series until August 2018. From September 2018 onwards the new version AC Class yachts will race in the ACWS. The ACWS will include fleet racing and match racing. The final ACWS event will be held in the venue of the America’s Cup Match and the Challenger Playoffs will start right afterwards, followed by the Match.

The AC Class rule will be modified to allow racing in a wider wind range – 4 to 26 knots. This probably means adding a gennaker for light conditions and having a smaller wing for heavy air days. Remember that the original version of the AC72 Class Rule included a heavy air wing. The smaller wing was dropped from the rule, a move later regarded as a mistake, given the number of races cancelled due to wind above the limit in San Francisco in 2013.

The yacht clubs represented by Oracle Racing, Land Rover BAR, Groupama Team France, Artemis Racing and SoftBank Team Japan have agreed that if one of them wins the America’s Cup Match in Bermuda this June, they will only accept a challenge from a yacht club that has agreed to these terms. That could be one of them, a new team, or Emirates Team New Zealand, should the Kiwis change their minds and agree to these terms. The fly in the ointment is that if the Kiwis don’t agree to these terms and then go on to win the America’s Cup, this framework goes out the window. Such is the America’s Cup.

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Practice Racing in Bermuda

AC Race Management Regatta Director Iain Murray is running two weeks of practice racing in Bermuda, with teams sailing their AC45X test boats. This is the third time ACRM has run training races in Bermuda. All teams were invited, but neither Groupama Team France nor Emirates Team New Zealand is participating. Not only have the French and the Kiwis not yet arrived in Bermuda, they no longer have test boats – they’ve been disassembled for parts for those teams’ AC Class race yachts.

Our contacts in Bermuda say that Artemis and Team Japan seem to be going especially well, but not to read too much into that.

The umpire is making calls on the water, so there is plenty of shouting, especially in the pre-starts. The LiveLine system requires helicopters and a complete technical team to operate it – a bit impractical for practice races.

This is not just for the sailors – it’s a rehearsal for the shore crews as well. There is some flexibility in the work schedule on training days, but on race day the boat needs to be at the starting area on time. The designers will also be getting feedback on how their daggerboard designs are performing. Control systems ergonomics and hydraulics will also get thoroughly tested in race conditions.

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2017: What to Expect and When to Expect It

Oracle Team USA, SoftBank Team Japan, Artemis Racing and Land Rover BAR are already established in Bermuda. Groupama Team France and Emirates Team New Zealand will arrive in February.

January: The four teams already in Bermuda will probably be sailing their AC45X test boats on the Great Sound. They are allowed to train together when sailing these boats. Groupama Team France and Emirates Team New Zealand are stripping down their test boats to build their race boats with most of the components from the test boats.
February: The four teams in Bermuda will probably launch their race boats on 9 February, after taking their 28 day “blackout period.” Team New Zealand and Team France will set up their bases in Bermuda and wait for their race boats to arrive.

February-April: The teams are not allowed to sail their race boats together. Team France and Team New Zealand will not have AC45X test boats so they will need to test and train on their own. Oracle, Artemis, BAR and Team Japan have test boats to sail against their race boats, but with only eight sailors, Team Japan’s sailing team is too small for that – they will probably only sail their race boat. Artemis only lists 11 men on their “sailing team” but the 11 includes helmsmen Francesco Bruni and Paul Goodison. They also have Loïc Peyron and and Stu Bettany listed in other departments, so they could put two boats on the water. BAR list 13 sailors including backup helmsman Leigh McMillan, so they will be able to sail both “T3” and their race boat if they choose. Oracle lists the biggest sailing team with 14. They will be able to sail two boats if they choose. Don’t underestimate the logistical challenge of putting two boats on the water – we may see the teams mostly sailing only their race boat.

May: Racing starts on 26 May with all six teams in the double round robin AC Qualifiers. Each team will race twice on at least two days, and only two substitutions are allowed between races. Remember that BAR starts with two points and Oracle has one, their reward for coming in first and second in the AC World Series. At the end of the Qualifiers, one challenger is eliminated. Oracle goes on to the AC Match while the four remaining challengers sail in the Challenger Playoffs to decide who will sail against Oracle in the AC Match.

June: The semi-finals and finals of the Challenger Playoffs run from 4-12 June. Superyachts, J Class and Youth America’s Cup racing will begin on 12 June. The big showdown, the America’s Cup Match, will be sailed on two successive weekends beginning 17 June. By Sunday 25 June we may have our winner but it might take until 27 June for one team to score the seven points needed to take the Cup.

Later in 2017: Five of the six teams want to start up the AC World Series for a 2019 America’s Cup cycle. There could be AC World Series events in Bermuda later in the Summer and another ACWS event in Chicago later in the year. If Team New Zealand wins, all bets are off – the Kiwis have other plans.

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Team Updates – Monday 9 January 2017

Emirates Team New Zealand Five time America’s Cup winner and AC Hall of Famer Murray Jones has joined ETNZ to help coach Peter Burling on match racing and on the cutthroat competition in the America’s Cup. Murray was one of the “tight five” who moved with Russell Coutts to Alinghi for the 2003 AC. Coutts recruited him to Oracle for the 2013 cycle, but now Murray is back with Team New Zealand.

ETNZ started tearing down their team base in Auckland right after New Year’s, to ship it to Bermuda. Presumably their AC 45X test boat is being torn down as well. The team will build their AC Class race boat using many components from the test boat. They will launch in Auckland by the end of January and sail it several weeks before shipping the boat to Bermuda. When the race boat gets to Bermuda, they will have only one boat.

Groupama Team France The team stopped sailing their AC45X test boat on 18 December. The boat was shipped from Lanveoc to Vannes to be dismantled for parts for the AC Class.

On 4 January the team began packing up their base in Lorient for the the move to Bermuda. Most of the team will arrive in Bermuda in February. They plan to have their race boat in there by March.

Land Rover BAR The Brits arrived in Bermuda in early December. They had their final sail of 2016 on 21 December and started up again sailing T3 on the Great Sound on 4 January. Their built-in-Britain race boat arrived in Bermuda on 3 January.

They will take their “blackout period” beginnining 9 January and launch the race boat on 6 February.

SoftBank Team Japan Like the other Bermuda-based teams, Team Japan will probably launch their AC Class race yacht on 9 February. Team Japan bought their design from Oracle, and former Team New Zealand design team leader Nick Holroyd has helped them with development. Their website lists only eight sailors, not enough to sail both their AC Class race boat and their AC45X test boat.

Artemis Racing In early December Artemis began practicing match race manoeuvres with their two test boats. In a recent video, Francesco Bruni gives a tour of the cockpit and some of the controls on the team’s first AC45X test boat “Turbo 1.”

Watch the video here – skip forward to the six minute mark.

Oracle Team USA The team returns 9 January from time off for the holidays. We can expect to see them sailing their AC45X test boats in January. They will probably launch their race boat on 6 February.

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Why No Team Launched Their Race Boat Yet

Teams were allowed to launch their AC Class race boats almost two weeks ago, but no one did. Why not? It’s not only the holiday schedule. The rules changed. Again. All teams must pick 28 consecutive days when they do not sail their AC Class yachts. If they take their blackout days after launching, they may not work on their boat during the blackout period. So the only logical thing to do is to take your blackout period before launching. A quick look at a calendar lets us figure that the four teams already in Bermuda – Oracle, Japan, Artemis and BAR – should launch on Monday 6 February. This will leave them 109 days to develop and learn to sail their race boat before the first day of racing on Friday 26 May.
Why the rule change? It is probably part of making amends to Team New Zealand for ACEA pulling the round robin AC Qualifiers out of Auckland back in March 2015. Read about that dispute here. Confidentiality rules prevent the teams from confirming that the Arbitration Panel awarded damages to ETNZ. ETNZ will use the blackout period to ship their boat to Bermuda. Groupama Team France will do the same. Rules geeks who want all the details can download the most recent Protocol here and read Article 35.5.

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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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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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