America's Cup - The countdown starts for the start of serious racing

by Sail-World.com NZL on 26 May 2016 In just one year, on May 26, 2017, the first races of the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Qualifiers are scheduled to take place on Bermuda’s Great Sound.

All six America’s Cup teams will race in the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Qualifiers, in new America’s Cup Class foiling catamarans, purpose-built for the racing in 2017.

If the defending champion, Oracle Team USA, wins the opening series, it will earn a one-point lead in the America’s Cup Match series.

If the winning team is a Challenger, and they end up in the Match, they will have a one point advantage on the scoreboard.

Only the top four challengers advance from the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Qualifiers meaning one Challenger will be eliminated from further competition. The rest will advance to semi-finals and finals, with the eventual winner facing Oracle Team USA in the America’s Cup Match presented by Louis Vuitton.

Time is going to become a very vital commodity for the America’s Cup teams as deadlines are fast approaching to lock in design concepts and to start building race boats for 2017.

Under the Protocol governing the 35th America's Cup, the first AC50 cannot be launched before January 1, 2017, or 150 days before the start of the Qualifiers. AC50's are also prohibited from racing against each other except in the Qualifier Venue of Bermuda. The Bermuda Qualifier venue is still subject to confirmation by the Arbitration Panel at a hearing to be held in July 2016.

For the first time in America's Cup history this cycle there has been open collaboration between some Challengers and the Defender in respect of design, technology transfer and boats. The exception being Emirates Team New Zealand which has stood alone from the rest of the group and has adopted the isolated role traditionally reserved for the Defender. With the departure of former Challenger of Record, Luna Rossa (ITA), the Kiwis lost a long-time ally.

Now, the Kiwi team are the common enemy of the other Challengers and Defenders - and the old truism of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' has certainly come into play in an unusual way in the 35th America's Cup.

The Construction in Country rules in the Protocol have been modified so that only a 2.7-metre section of the canoe body of the catamaran has to be constructed in the country of the Challenging and Defending Club. The remainder of the construction can be completed anywhere in the world.

Only one member of the crew is required to be a national of the Challenging/Defending club and in America's Cup terms that means just holding a passport of their club's country.

Each Challenger is permitted to build on AC50. Oracle Team USA is permitted to build two, and will sail in the Qualifier Series. But if they chose to build a second AC50, they can't launch her until the start of the Semi-Finals. The Defender is prohibited from sailing in the Playoffs (Semis and Finals) for the Louis Vuitton Cup. If they have a second AC50, the Defender can't sail it in the America's Cup Match unless their first boat suffered catastrophic damage.

They are allowed two wingsails per boat, meaning the Challengers are allowed two wingsails each and the Defenders are allowed two or four if they build a second AC50. The hull shape is a strict one-design, the profile of the wingsail is also one-design. The only free-design areas of the AC50 are in foils and foiling systems, control systems, power generation and parasitic drag reduction or streamlining of the platform and rig.

So far four of the America's Cup teams, LandRover BAR (UK), Softbank Team Japan (JPN), Artemis Racing (SWE) and Oracle Team USA have established bases and are sailing development versions of the AC45 in Bermuda, with all except Japan sailing two of the development AC45's, or Surrogates as they are defined in the Protocol.

LandRover BAR, Groupama Team France, and Emirates Team New Zealand all have bases in their home country.

It is not clear at this stage if the 'home base' teams will launch AC50's in their home country and then fly to Bermuda and re-set up the boat, losing valuable training time. Or if the boats are constructed in their home country and then flown to Bermuda for final assembly and launch on or just after the January 1, 2017, date.

The trade-off with home construction and fly/ship to Bermuda option is that the construction start date will have to be brought forward to facilitate shipping, thus shortening design deadlines and options.

Over the past 20 years or so of America's Cup history, the top performers in the America's Cup have been the first launched boats, underlining the fact that tuning and development time pays the biggest dividend in the competition for the most prestigious trophy in sailing, and sport generally.