Cup Experience News | America's Cup Match Pre-Race Special Edition
Cup Experience News
Issue 54 | Friday 16 June 2017 Oracle Won Qualifiers, carries bonus to Match
In this issue:
Defender Oracle Team USA starts off one point ahead of Emirates Team New Zealand thanks to Oracle having won the round robin AC Qualifiers. The bonus point Oracle earned with that win means the Kiwis must win eight races to lift the Cup, while Oracle needs seven wins. The schedule of racing:
- Sat 17 June: 2 races
- Sun 18 June: 2 races
- Sat 24 June: 2 races
- Sun 25 June: 2 or 3 races
- Mon 26 June: up to 3 races if needed
- Tue 27 June: up to 3 races if needed
- Racing begins each day at 14:00 Bermuda time (UTC-3)
Viewing information here.
About the schedule: Once either team has four or more points, ACEA COO Sam Hollis, acting as "Commercial Commissioner," can declare that there will be three races rather than two the following day. Deciding the Match could take as many as 14 races: if the score reaches 6-6, it will mean 13 races have been run, since the Kiwis start at minus one (-1).
The Match should be a real battle of the titans, a rematch of the thriller from 2013 in San Francisco. That Match went the full distance, to 19 races, since Oracle started with a score of minus two (-2) and needed to win 11 races. Some predictions:
- Neither team will sweep the other - it will be a back and forth battle.
- The racing will be intense, with frequent lead changes after the first downwind leg. The first boat to Mark 1 - the end of the short blast reach after the start - will almost always be leading at Gate 2, since there are few passing opportunities on the short first downwind leg.
- It will come down to sailing - how well the teams execute their maneuvers.
- Neither team will have an overwhelming speed advantage.
- Oracle's Jimmy Spithill will be very aggressive, especially in the pre-starts.
- Very light air will favor the Kiwis.
Listen to Oracle's Jimmy Spithill and New Zealand's Peter Burling give their predictions during the pre-Match press conference from Friday 16 June here.
Notice the white tip on Oracle's daggerboard. Teams can make an unlimited number of modifications to any daggerboard, as long as it does not change the weight by more than 10%. Changing a daggerboard tip would fall within this allowance.
Team New Zealand getting ready to practice on Thursday 15 June. Installing the rudders.
Note the light wind daggerboards with long wings and a pronounced kink.
More Notes
- Regatta Director Iain Murray says the teams are sailing "unprecedentedly deep angles" on the downwind legs - as much as 160° off the true wind.
- When asked how much feel the helmsmen have for the daggerboard controls, Murray replied that they can probably tell what grade of sandpaper the boat builders used to fair the surface of the boards.
- Don't expect to see the 50 knot barrier broken. The teams have optimized their daggerboards for a wide range of low take-off speeds and good low-drag high speed performance, rather than optimizing for top end speed. They will hit their highest speed on the reach to the first mark, after the start, in the high 40's.
What happens if your boat is damaged when the other boat fouls you? Or when you hit an object in the water? Or capsize? Just before the round robin Qualifiers began, the teams approved rules for redress. If your boat is seriously damaged through a foul by the other boat while you are racing, and you were trying to avoid a collision, i.e. obeying Rule 14, the other boat can be black flag disqualified from that race, and the Jury can award you a point as redress, even if you did not finish the race. The Jury can also postpone any more races on the same day and the following day, to give you time to repair the damage. But if you are not ready to race on the second day following the damage, you will be scored DNC (did not come to the start) and your opponent will score the point for the races you missed. If the damage comes while you are not racing, or because you hit an object in the water, or you capsize, you are out of luck - no redress is possible. As an example, when New Zealand capsized in the semi-finals, it was through no fault of their opponent, Land Rover BAR. New Zealand was disqualified when they capsized. If they had not been able to repair their boat in time for the next races, they would have lost those points.
Click the image to see video of the capsize.
Click here to watch expert commentator Ken Read and Team France designer Martin Fischer discuss how the capsize happened.
The three "first time" teams were the first to be eliminated: FRA, GBR, JPN.
- Team France finished last in the round robin Qualifiers and was eliminated first.
- SoftBank Team Japan led Artemis Racing 3-1 in the semi-finals before the Swedish team reeled of four straight wins and moved to the Challenger Finals.
- As the top challenger in the Qualifiers, Team New Zealand had their choice of opponent for the semi- finals. They chose Land Rover BAR, thought to have the slowest boat in all but a narrow wind speed range. The Brits were improving, but not fast enough to hold off the Kiwis. Ben Ainslie's team scored a point when the Kiwis capsized on Tuesday 6 June. When racing resumed on Thursday 8 June, Ben Ainslie's men took one race from New Zealand, but the Kiwis shut the door with two wins, advancing to the Challenger Final.
New Zealand won a hard fought Challenger Final with Artemis Racing, 5-2. The Swedish team lost one race when helmsman Nathan Outteridge went overboard during a tack. Watch the video and listen to Nathan explain what happened here.
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