This game has changed
Following the switch from ponderous monohulls to M32 cats the rules of engagement on the World Match Racing Tour have certainly changed… and almost certainly for the better, says Andy Rice
At the beginning of the season the new- look World Match Racing Tour was billing itself as a #gamechanger on social media. However, when reigning world champion Ian Williams came out and won the first event held in M32 catamarans back in March in Fremantle, you had to wonder whether things had changed that much after all. Since then, however, we’ve seen plenty of evidence that things really have shifted in a number of significant ways. At the
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WMRT event in Copenhagen in May the number of lead changes and the degree of uncertainty in the matches were unprece- dented. In the keelboat days of the World Match Racing Tour the start was every- thing – or certainly an absolutely critical part of the contest. Approximately 85 per cent of the time the boat that led around the first windward mark would go on to win the match. That percentage is nowhere near as high in the new style of racing. In the strong winds of Fremantle it was the first time we got to see the M32s and the first time we saw the use of high-speed reaching starts on the Tour. Winning the start was pretty important but now it wasn’t everything. In the predominantly lighter airs of Copenhagen sometimes the start mattered even less.
The 500kg weight of the all-carbon M32 means it responds to the slightest change of wind strength, which makes finding the strongest puff the over-riding factor downwind with the gennaker, and still very important on the upwind legs. A good start provided little guarantee of
being able to defend that early lead. One of the biggest gamechangers of all, however, has been the introduction of course boundaries up each side of the race- track. These become particularly impor- tant when the course is at all one-sided. Like many of the recent innovations in high-level racing (including the America’s Cup itself) – the use of a windward gate as well as a leeward gate, the reaching starts, the less expensive penalties – these bound- aries aim to give the trailing boat a better chance of getting back into the fight. It was pretty clear from watching the
racing in Copenhagen that even the world’s best pro sailors are still working out what the new tactics are when you can be certain that the umpires will hand you a stop-go penalty if you stray beyond those course limits. Chris Steele was one of 20 skippers in Copenhagen who at times were almost as focused studying the racing from the shore as they were on the water in their own matches. Everybody else’s matches are a vital opportunity to learn the winning – and losing – moves before once more
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