America's Cup - Second error by Umpires, and must wins for Artemis

by Richard Gladwell on 30 May 2017 America's Cup Chief Umpire, Richard Slater admitted that there had been a signalling error of starting penalty against Artemis Racing in yesterday's controversial Race 14 in Bermuda.

At this morning's media briefing held daily by the Race Director Iain Murray and Chief Umpire Richard Slater, the questions flew regarding yesterday's surprise admission by the Chief Umpire that an error had been made, but that the win to Emirates Team New Zealand would stand.

Slater denied that the umpiring system had crashed during the crucial incident but did concede that a second error had been made at the start of the race. The penalty signal for Artemis Racing to take a pre-start penalty was manually switched off in error and then back on again five seconds later.

Sweden was not cleared of having taken the pre-start penalty until after she had rounded Mark 1, 54 secs after crossing the start line. However the Chief Umpire said that they were satisfied that the penalty had been properly completed.

Turning to the controversy at Mark 6, Race Director Iain Murray revealed that Emirates Team New Zealand was travelling at 32kts at the time of the incident on starboard tack, and Artemis Racing sailing faster at 40kts. At 30kts of boat speed the AC50's are travelling at a boat length every 2 secs, and maybe as fast as a boat length a second given the closing speed of the two competitors.

It was not really clear as to the information that the umpiring team considered after the incident, but it seemed to be related to the potential position of the boats involved. Slater said that the Liveline system did not do that, and they had to rely on the human umpires on the water to make that assessment.

In other words, Liveline does not have a DRS system as used in Cricket to show the predicted trajectory of the ball in an Appeal for Leg Before Wicket, and that system is used to make the decision, rather than relying on the Umpire's view and assessment from the other end of the pitch.

Despite having a penalty signalled Artemis Racing did not pull off the course to let Emirates Team New Zealand through and towards the end of the two-minute final leg to the finish. From a perspective sighting up the leg, it appeared that Emirates Team New Zealand was staying deliberately astern of the Swedish to protect the penalty.

Slater said that Emirates Team New Zealand had been ahead of the Swedes at the previous 'cross' or intersection of the two boats, and the margin at Mark 6 was just 2 ecs or one boat length.

Emirates Team New Zealand had twice appealed to the Umpires before rounding Mark 6 - with the Appeals being six seconds apart before the Umpires ruled in their favour on the second call for a breach of Racing Rule 10 which requires a boat of port tack (Artemis) to keep clear of one on a Starboard tack (Emirates Team NZ).

As it was the two boats finished within a second of each other, and the Swedish, although the first to cross the finish line still had their blue penalty light flashing. New Zealand received the race win and vital point - sufficient for them to probably make the cut for the Play-offs.

Pressure goes on Swedes
The loss of the win for Artemis Racing along with their surprise loss to Groupama Team France on Day 2, leaves them with just two points on the table - where four points are looking to be the necessary to make the cut for the Play-offs.

The other take-out from the incident, and also from the Land Rover BAR/Softbank Team Japan collision on the first day of racing, is that the speed and nature of the AC50 catamarans is such that the helmsmen should not push the margins quite so hard - and risking contact or a penalty.

In today's racing, the start of Round Robin 2, which finishes on Saturday, three races will be sailed.

It is make or break for the Swedish challenger Artemis Racing today. They have two tough matches against Emirates Team New Zealand and British Challenger, Land Rover BAR.

Ideally the Swedes will be looking to come away from the day with two points - enough to get them over the crucial four point barrier and into the Play-offs.

Equally the British with the self-admitted upwind speed issues will not want to go to an ignominious five losses in succession.

Emirates Team New Zealand with four wins one loss from Round Robin 1 (the same record as Defender Oracle Team USA) can afford to treat all the racing in Round Robin 2 as practice for the Play-offs without the pressure of having to win races to make the cut.

Racing Schedule – Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Qualifiers Round Robin 2

RR 2 R1: Emirates Team New Zealand v. Artemis Racing 2:08 pm
RR 2 R2: Groupama Team France v. Oracle Team USA 2:37 pm
RR 2 R3: Artemis Racing v. Land Rover BAR 3:06 pm

Race Director, Iain Murray indicated that winds were expected to be in the 12-16kt range at 2.00pm, and reducing to 10-14kts by 3.00pm and remaining at that strength until 4.00pm when racing should have concluded.