The final AC World Series event in Naples saw Francesco Bruni and Luna Rossa crash into Emirates Team New Zealand in their match race. Racing sailors would find the penalties confusing – the boat on starboard tack (ETNZ) was penalized and it took them most of the next leg to pay off their penalty. By that time they were 75m behind with only 300m to the final turning mark.
What happened? The Racing Rules of Sailing, America’s Cup Edition, have a very different rule about mark roundings. I explain this in the Video Briefing Room on the website – look at the video “Who can cut inside?” If you’re a rules geek like me, you can download the RRS AC Edition in the AC Guide section of the website.
What should have happened:
(Thanks to Jos Spijkerman for the diagram. Learn more about the rules at his website.)
What did happen:
ETNZ was penalized – a “boat on boat” penalty in a match race. Their penalty was to let Luna Rossa get two boat lengths ahead – precisely measured by the LiveLine system. But they compounded their penalty by gybing, which resulted in an additional two boat length penalty. See a complete sequence of images and more details here.
