The America’s Cup World Series wraps up in Fukuoka, Japan in November. This will be the last fleet racing in the current Cup cycle before the action moves to Bermuda. Match racing begins on 26 May 2017 in the double round robin “America’s Cup Qualifiers.” Remember that defender Oracle Team USA will race with the five challengers in the AC Qualifiers. Two teams will start the round robin with bonus points earned in the AC World Series – two points for the series winner and one for the runner-up. Six teams in a double round robin means each team will race ten times, so the bonus points have a lot of value. At the end of the round robin, one challenger is “excused from further competition” and Oracle goes on to the America’s Cup Match. The winner of the round robin earns a bonus point to carry into the  Match. If that’s Oracle, they will start the Match with a one point lead. If a challenger wins the round robin, they get the one point lead for the Match if they make it through the semi-finals and finals of the “America’s Cup Challenger Playoffs.” The one point lead comes in the form of having your opponent start with a score of minus one in the first to seven America’s Cup Match. This seems odd, but in fact it suits the television schedule: The Match is scheduled on two successive weekends, with no weekday racing. If either team can get to four or more points by the end of the second Saturday, the Protocol allows three races to be sailed on the second Sunday, increasing the chances of the Match being decided that day.

Land Rover BAR appear likely to win the AC World Series, grabbing two bonus points to carry into the round robin. Oracle Team USA and Emirates Team New Zealand are separated by three points, so they will be battling for the runner up slot and the bonus point that goes with it. Since the America’s Cup World Series results will be used to break ties at the end of the round robin, the competition will also be intense further down the leaderboard. SoftBank Team Japan and Artemis Racing will be fighting for fourth and fifth place. Groupama Team France is unlikely to climb out of the cellar.

The AC World Series in Fukuoka could also be the last time America’s Cup teams race the AC45’s. Plans for the 36^th America’s Cup cycle would see the next World Series raced in the new AC Class yachts currently being built. The AC45’s will be used for the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup in 2017 and will presumably continue as the youth boat in the future. The Kiwis have yet to agree to this plan but the other five teams are on board.

About those new race yachts… All teams have their construction well under way. The Protocol requires the teams to delay launching until 27 December 2016 – 150 days before the first race of the round robin America’s Cup Qualifiers. Once launched, the teams are only allowed to use a total of four daggerboards. How does that affect launch and development plans? Operating on limited budgets, Team France and Team New Zealand will stay in their home waters in early 2017 and convert their current AC45X test boats into their race yachts by replacing the hulls. Their wings, crossbeams, and, in the case of the French, their rudders, are all compliant with the AC Class Rule. By delaying their move to Bermuda, they can keep testing daggerboard designs in their test boats before committing to the four boards they will use for racing. Having an airline as their title sponsor, Emirates Team New Zealand should be able to air freight their race yacht to Bermuda and not lose too much time in transit. Groupama Team France has a relatively short route to get their race yacht to Bermuda. But both these teams will be at a disadvantage from having less time to get used to the local conditions. The more well heeled teams have more options. Land Rover BAR will be operational in Bermuda by December, joining the three teams already there: Oracle, Artemis and Team Japan. These four teams can continue to experiment with daggerboard designs with their test boats and do two boat testing with their race yacht. Expect to see all of them on the Great Sound in January. Bermuda will be an especially busy place in the first half of next year as the 35^th America’s Cup moves out of the AC45s and into a new phase.