Update
How’s this for an idea to add some spice in Barcelona this summer… This is the 12 Metre Worlds on Narragansett Bay during the Cup summer of 1980. Teams could sandbag and most likely many did so, but it offered a fine spectacle and also allowed B-Boat crews their moment in the sun. A similar event took place in Newport in 1982 and then in Fremantle in 1986 (Kookaburra ducked this to their eventual cost). If the 2024 teams requested an AC75 ‘World Championship’ (after the Cup) we have no doubt that for a small… fee World Sailing would oblige. And how cool would that be… plus there could be an event for AC40s too, giving that class a nice leg up
AC RACING RULES AND UMPIRING – Jack Griffin The Racing Rules of Sailing – America’s Cup Edition have some important differences to the RRS that apply to the racing that most of us do. Starting, boundaries, keeping clear, penalties and mark room rules are a few of the examples. Understanding some of these RRS-AC rules will make watching the races more interesting. The sophistication of the umpiring system matches that of the
racing. Using GPS, a yacht’s position is known to within 3cm (sic) of the starting line, course boundaries and mark zones, and of course, to the other yacht. Yacht speed and heading are measured using the doppler shift of the GPS signal. Think about that for a moment – the yacht speed is calculated by sensing how quickly it is moving relative to a satellite. The yachts have virtual boundaries – the Platform Border and
the Keep Clear Border. The Platform Border is used to determine if a boat is OCS or breaches the course boundary. The Keep Clear Border is 2m outside the Platform Border and must be respected in all boat-on-boat situations. Rules for penalties are probably the most mysterious, even to
the sailors. ‘A boat completes her penalty when the umpires deter- mine that a boat has lost the required distance and they have signalled that the penalty is completed via the RO Comms.’ You don’t do turns, you slow down and drop 75m behind the other boat. And the umpires tell you when you are far enough behind. Penalties must be completed within 60 seconds, or an additional penalty is added on. The umpires would probably rather that the boats do turns – that would avoid the complaints we sometimes hear during racing, when the sailors think they’ve completed their penalties. Situations can arise where a boat gets multiple penalties – think
boat-on-boat combined with being OCS or going outside the course boundary, combined with not completing a penalty in the required 60 seconds. If a boat is genuinely attempting to pay off their penalty
14 SEAHORSE
but they are not losing the required distance, the umpires have the option to declare the penalty completed. The starting penalties in Rule 30 of the regular RRS have been
deleted. Under RRS-AC if you are OCS and the other boat started correctly you need to drop 75m behind the boat that started correctly. If both boats are OCS each of them needs to sail below the line and then start correctly. In the light winds during the Vilanova pre- liminary regatta in the AC40s we saw boats sailing well above the line before the start, trying to stay up on their foils before dip-starting. Boats now need to be below the line at least three seconds before the starting signal. Rule 18, Mark Room in the RRS-AC, differs from the same rule
in the RRS in important ways. The rule is the same at windward and leeward marks. It does not matter which boat gets to the zone first. It does not matter if one or both boats need to tack to round the mark. It does not matter who is on port or starboard. All that matters is that when the first boat gets to the zone, if there is an overlap the inside boat gets mark room. In RRS-AC the zone at marks is 60m – approximately three boat lengths. Things can get confusing when it’s not clear which mark a boat intends to round at a gate. Rule 19, Room to Pass an Obstruction, and Rule 20, Room to
Tack at an Obstruction, have been completely rewritten for RRS-AC to deal with situations at the boundary, where a gybe might be required, and the obvious impossibility of one AC75 hailing the other. Basically, an outside boat needs to give an inside boat room to tack or gybe at a boundary to avoid the boundary penalty. The zone for the boundary is 115m – approximately five boat lengths. The umpiring system has evolved from the LiveLine system that
was developed for the 2013 America’s Cup. Originally seen as a tool to enhance the video images for the television broadcast, it quickly became apparent that the precision needed for augmented reality could be used for umpiring. Determining the facts needed to judge a protest or OCS became automatic with the accuracy of
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