Before the start of racing today at the International Rolex Regatta, tactician Bill Lynn (Marblehead, Mass.) predicted that in IRC class it would be a match race between his team on Austin and Gwen Fragomen’s (New York, N.Y. Direct Link
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A DAY TO REMEMBER @ Regatta News
[Source: Louis Vuitton Trophy] Dean Barker and Emirates Team New Zealand went unbeaten, while Paul Cayard and Artemis lost a vital match on a penalty call in an action-packed day of racing during the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Auckland.With just two days of racing remaining before the end of the round robin, a hungry pack of four teams is in equal second place, each with three points and fighting to catch the thus-far unbeatable Kiwis. They are All4One, representing Germany and France, Azzurra and Mascalzone Latino Audi Team from Italy and the British-based TEAMORIGIN.Conditions were ideal for racing with almost flat water and a southerly breeze that ranged from 12 to 20 knots with some big shifts and puffs. Peter Reggio’s race committee from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron got off four races with time to spare even after pauses for boat repairs and commercial shipping.Emirates got an extra share of the limelight today when it hosted All Black rugby football star Dan Carter as 18th man, and when it broke a spinnaker pole during a hoist, the third fracture in the regatta in as many days. The Kiwis shrugged it off, losing only a few seconds in their match against Azzurra and setting their spinnaker without a pole.Carter put in a lot of extra time comparing rugby to sailing action for the media microphones and signing autographs for the crowd that gathered in the Louis Vuitton Village in Market Square when he came ashore. His verdict? He was impressed by the teamwork and amazed at the intensity of the sounds of a Cup boat complaining under full load.Speaking of the penalty against Artemis, Gavin Brady, the Kiwi skipper of Mascalzone Latino Audi Team. “It (the penalty) was out there for the taking and it’s nice that it landed on our plate!â€?Brady said that about 35 seconds was needed on the short courses of the Louis Vuitton Trophy for a team to exonerate itself with a penalty turn. The other boat had only to stay close to guarantee a win. After the start and while they were racing it was vital not to be lured into a penalty situation that would cancel the first.“You’ve got to get on the right hand side of them and get starboard and it’s hard for the umpires to give you a penalty,â€? he said. “It was simple for us after that. We just had to watch for all the traps. I could see Terry and Paul looking back. They made it pretty clear when they were both looking back at me like hawks.â€?Race One: All4One, def. ALEPH, 01:06 – The breeze was 14 knots from the south, sou-west as the all-French team of ALEPH met the German/French All4One. After an intense pre-start in which Bertrand Pacé at the wheel of ALEPH attempted to get a hook on his opponent, it was the combined team steered by Frenchman Sébastien Col that grabbed control of the right as the boats split at the start. On … Direct Link
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Hungry pack fights for top place at Louis Vuitton Trophy @ Valencia Sailing
Bob Oatleys 100 foot Wild Oats XI will line up for the start of the Audi Sydney Offshore Newcastle Yacht Race on Friday 19 March at 12 noon, with twenty other yachts who have already confirmed their participation in the third edition of the race. Direct Link
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Wild Oats XI lines up for Audi Sydney Offshore Newcastle with one day until close of entries @ Cruising Yacht Club of Australia
With just a few days to the start of racing and with only a six-strong IRC fleet and just ten Farr 40’s registered, the scratch sheet at this year’s Miami Grand Prix is dominated by the twenty-three boat entry in the Melges 32 class. Following on from their closely fought series in Key West a couple of months ago, most of the usual Melges 32 suspects will be on the startline this week. This event sees the return to US racing of the reigning Melges 32 worl… Direct Link
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2010 Miami Grand Prix: Melges 32 Class Preview… @ Offshore Rules
The third post in this series is about the red flag on SUI and the penalty they received in the prestart. To explain the latter I will have to show you a diagram of the start area.? But first a few words on Match Racing. Because of the special nature of a match race – being one on one – its is not important to finish as fast as possible, as in a fleet race, it is only important to finish first. Finish first is key, however long that may take! Match race is about control. If you control your opponent, you can win. A controlling position is therefore paramount. In the AC 33 dogfight we see little of this because the boats are all about speed. But – yes – if you are ahead far enough, you control the race. And in Match 1 USA managed to control SUI for a couple of minutes in the prestart. To get that control you need to engage your opponent. And that engagement begins well before the start. Now if we do anything like a conventional start as in fleet racing, the two boats in a match race will never know when to begin looking for each other to gain that control. Therefore in match racing there’s a special procedure in the rules which allows a controlled beginning of the pre start manoeuvres. We have a sort of ‘start’ before the actual start line crossing. To get there, each boats is assigned to a side. The Yellow side next to the RC-boat and a Blue side next to the pin end of the start line Picture from a presentation by Henk Plaatje; http://www.plaatje.info/ ?In the AC33 Match 2, SUI was assigned the Yellow boat and USA the Blue boat. From the Rulebook: At her preparatory signal (five minutes in AC33) each boat shall be outside the line that is at a 90 degrees angle to the starting line through the starting mark at her assigned end. …. (C4.1) Within the two minute period following her preparatory signal, a boat shall cross and clear the starting line, the first time from the course side to the pre-start side. (C4.2) To check that precise line the umpire boat and the wing boat each place themselves on that line, one below and one above the starting line. If a boat is anywhere else then in its “boxâ€? when the preparatory signal is given, she gets a penalty. Be it still sailing to get there or be it sailing too soon over the line to get to the other boat. Outside your box equals penalty. In match 2 of AC 33, SUI was still sailing below the starting line towards her assigned end, when the five minute preparatory signal was given. That is the reason SUI was given a penalty. The wing boat signalled this to the umpire boat and they switched on the yellow light. Why, you might ask? Why was SUI not there? Remember … Direct Link
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AC 33 | Rules and explanations – part (3) @ Look To Windward
