Rules silent on Redress situation for America's Cup Regatta

by Richard Gladwell on 18 May 2017 Currently, there are no rules in place for the 35th America's Cup Regatta to cover Redress for a situation that occurred in the Practice Racing yesterday between the British and New Zealand Challengers.

After being rammed from astern by the Brits, Emirates Team New Zealand is now undergoing repairs that will probably not be completed until Saturday.

While British skipper Ben Ainslie initially dismissed the hole in the New Zealand catamaran as a 'love tap' the damaged area is approximately three metres long. It would normally be repaired by laying up a new hull section and inserting that in place of the damaged area.

Some 'love-tap' - what would a king-hit look like?

While umpires were in action for the Practice Racing, had it been the America's Cup proper they would have almost certainly Black-Flagged Land Rover BAR for their role in the collision - when as a give way boat they rammed into the topside of Emirates Team New Zealand, who had no way of escaping the charging Brits.

The Practice Sessions are informal racing sessions organised by America's Cup Regatta Management and are not covered by the Sailing Rules which govern the America's Cup.

But with eight days left to the start of the America's Cup Regatta on May 26, there are no rules in place to cover the situation if similar rammings occurred in the Main Event.

Racing Rule 62.2 says 'Redress (if any) in AC Class Yacht racing will be agreed by GGYC and the Challenger Committee prior to the start of the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Qualifiers and this rule amended accordingly.'

Redress is can be given for a variety of reasons including actions or omissions of the Race Committee, or for damage caused by boats who were required to keep clear and fail to do so.

In other words, Redress covers a situation when rules are broken and damage results.

The modifier on Redress is that it can only be given when the damaged boat has no fault in the incident. That is the wronged boat hasn't contributed to their demise.

Looking at the incident in Day 2 of Practice Session 5, it was caused by Ben Ainslie, skipper of Land Rover BAR electing to bear off at the start of Race 12 and attempting to sail through a non-existent gap between Emirates Team New Zealand and the starting mark.

Ainslie tried to fit a 7.5metre wide catamaran through a two metre gap - it was never going to work - to the surprise of no-one, he hit the Kiwi boat and snared the start mark as well.

It was a hot-headed beginner's mistake, and one would have expected better from a helmsman who is a former World Match Racing Champion, and who would be expected to hold back for a second, and then accelerate through to leeward of the Kiwis.

Maybe such brinkmanship works in the heavyweight Finn class where Ainslie won four Olympic Gold medals, but it is way out of line in the delicate AC50's.

Often in match racing there is a temptation to have contact with another boat to make a point about who has right of way and that there was definitely contact between the two boats - and that the give way boat cannot argue that because there was no contact the give way yacht did keep clear as required by the rules.

We saw this happen in the prestart of a couple of races in the 34th America's Cup in San Francisco when Oracle Team USA skipper Jimmy Spithill passed through to leeward of Dean Barker in Emirates Team New Zealand, and luffing slightly requiring the Kiwis to keep clear as the windward boat.

They didn't have the ability to respond, and Spithill made sure that he had contact, a very soft touch between the Challenger and Defender's hulls just to make his point, and have Barker penalised by the following umpires.

There is no Redress awarded after that race because there was no damage - other than maybe scratch marks.

Vexed issue of Redress
Redress rules get very difficult in a situation such as yesterday's when there is substantial damage, the time to repair is several days, and the teams don't have substitute boats or hull sections that can be used for replacement.

What would normally happen in a fleet racing regatta is that a damaged boat is given points according an option selected by the Jury - which might be average points for other races in the regatta, her position at the time of the incident or some other method which gives the most equitable outcome.

A key part of redress is that the Jury has to consider its effect on other boats in the regatta, and can invite testimony from boats not directly involved.

However, standard redress does not cover the start-line collision of Day 2.

A fundamental part of redress is that the injured boat should not be placed in a worse situation when Redress is awarded. Often Jurys err on the side of being slightly generous, and at the end of a regatta, the boat wronged in the collision may get a result better than what many feel she would have achieved had there been no incident.

Under the current America's Cup Rules, Land Rover BAR would have been Black Flagged by the Umpires - meaning that she was disqualified from the race and the win was awarded to Emirates Team New Zealand.

But that doesn't cover the four days out of the regatta necessary for repairs by Emirates Team New Zealand.

Outside the Bermuda Bubble it seems incongruous that a boat could hit another, cause substantial damage, and then be out on the race course the next day while her victim is in the shed being repaired, and has clearly suffered substantial disadvantage, through no fault of her own.

What is the Jury to do - award them win points for every race they miss?

Given what happened in the last America's Cup Match when Oracle Team USA recovered from being down 8-1, a boat winning all of its subsequent races is not a big stretch of the imagination.

The alternative is to suspect racing for all boats until the damaged boat is repaired. But that plays merry hell with the TV broadcast schedule.

However a fundamental issue in a knock-out competition such as the America's Cup is that all races should be held in the same weather - given that some might be better light air performers than others who are better in a breeze. That puts an edge on the concept that says Emirates Team NZ could sail all its races after the other boats had completed their schedule, after an incident such as yesterdays.

The simple point is that there is no easy answer, and the easiest way of avoiding contentious redress cases is to not have the incident in the first place.

Reckless Sailing
In addition to the Redress rule which is the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, and a Reckless Sailing rule needs to be introduced.

That might just be the deterrent to the skippers having a brain explosion and ramming other AC50's - particularly in a sharp bow versus delicate topside incident as occurred yesterday.

It is very hard to believe that a sailor of Ainslie's calibre would not have been aware of the damage that would have ensued from such contact.

A breach of the Reckless Sailing rule would mean that Land Rover BAR would have lost points already scored in the series. Ironically they are carrying two bonus point into the Qualifiers after her performance in the America's Cup World Series.

A points penalty might be cold comfort to the team in the boat building shed - but it is potentially regatta ending for cowboy crews, and is a salutary signal to the race crews to not indulge in playing bumper boats in the AC50's.

With just eight days remaining and the benefit of hindsight, it will be interesting to see what is decided, and how seriously the teams take these sort of incidents.

In the 34th America's Cup the powers that be wasted no time in bringing in the so-called Dalton Clause, when they didn't like the event being publicly criticized. Will they act with similar alacrity to bring in an Ainslie Clause to deter Reckless Sailing?