America's Cup - Racing set in Semi-Finals, Minus points for Challenger

by Richard Gladwell Sail-World.com/nz on 5 Jun 2017 Racing is expected to get underway in the Semi-Finals of the 35th America's Cup in what is forecast to be ideal sailing conditions.

The forecast issued at today's media briefing with Race Director Iain Murray, was for conditions of 13-17kts - within a knot or two of the prognosis from Predictwind.com.

However the weather is forecast to take a turn for the worse with winds predicted to be above the upper limit of 24kts for safe racing. Strong winds are forecast through to Saturday when the Finals of the Challenger Series are due to be started.

At this morning's media briefing Murray said that while he has a safety mandate on the upper windstrength - being able to postpone racing if in his opinion conditions are not safe, the former America's Cup skipper said that would really only be looked at if the winds were from the North and the sea state made for unsafe conditions.

Murray said that he expected conditions today would be close to ideal for a new speed record to be set in wingsailed multihulls.

Emirates Team New Zealand set a new mark of 49.7kts in the 2013 America's Cup Regatta, the highest in Bermuda has been around 45-46kts.

Murray, who is also a noted yacht designer said that if the record was to be set it would most likely be on the first leg of the course, where the boats were sailing at close to their optimum wind angle.

He went on to explain that the big difference between the AC50's which are designed to foil, and that foiling in AC72's was more of an unintended design consequence, was that the AC50's could sail much more efficiently on the downwind legs - being able to sail at angles on 160degrees to the true wind direction.

Murray also explained that if an AC50 capsized (which Oracle Team USA have managed to do twice in Bermuda) then the race would be black flagged and the win awarded to the other boat - without the requirement for that boat to sail the course and finish in accordance with the rules.



Challenger to start Match a point in arrears
The other revelation which came from today's session was an explanation of the Bonus Point won by Defender Oracle Team USA.

The application of that means that the Challenger whoever that is will start with a one point deficit in the America's Cup Match and the Defender Oracle Team USA will start on zero points. That means that the Challenger has to win eight races in a best of seven contest, while the Defender will only have to win seven races for a three-peat.

The America's Cup Defender was also out on the waters of the Great Sound this morning as the remaining four AC50's were practicing. At the last media conference, skipper Jimmy Spithill said that a team of boatbuilders had flown in from Core Builders Composites and would be installing new parts on the Defender's AC50 - and Oracle Team USA would appear to be running a build by night, test by day strategy.

Towards the end of the session, Oracle Team USA hooked up with training and development buddy Softbank Team Japan for a run up the Great Sound. This may have been part of a serious speed test by Oracle Team USA, or just another stunt pulled Australian skipper Jimmy Spithill to taunt the Kiwi media, and wind up the volume on the Emirates Team New Zealand fans and media back in New Zealand.

The pair broke off in front of the media centre in the Royal Dockyard, with Softbank Team Japan returning to freshen up for this afternoon's racing, while Oracle Team USA stayed out doing further testing.

It will be interesting to see if this becomes a regular feature - and certainly the first time that a Challenger has seriously worked with a Defender, over a sustained period of time, in the 166 years of America's Cup history.

The King of Spain, a long-time Emirates Team New Zealand fan is visiting the team in the Royal Dockyard, and is expected to watch the racing from one of the team's tenders.

Monday, 5th June Program
Racing Schedule – Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Challenger Playoffs

SF 1 R1: Emirates Team New Zealand v. Land Rover BAR 2:08 pm
SF 1 R1: Artemis Racing v. SoftBank Team Japan 2:37 pm
SF 1 R2: Land Rover BAR v. Emirates Team New Zealand 3:06 pm
SF 1 R2: SoftBank Team Japan v. Artemis Racing 3:35 pm