July 10, 2013 By Jack Griffin

Racing begins. Sort of…

America’s Cup racing begins in San Francisco under “ruddergate” protest

“There is no second” because only one boat raced.

Emirates Team New Zealand sailed over the America’s Cup race course alone twice. On Sunday 7July Luna Rossa boycotted the race because of their “ruddergate” protest. Artemis Racing’s AC72 is not ready and did not race on Tuesday 9 July.

Even one AC72 generates excitement

Emirates Team New Zealand put on a stunning display of hydrofoiling speed and precision crew work. Their AC72 catamaran sped over the full America’s Cup course on San Francisco Bay, with a top speed over 42 knots. The flood tide going with the wind meant the water was smooth. Windspeed in the mid teens was ideal.

July 2, 2013 By Jack Griffin

ETNZ Protest – what’s it all about

ETNZ has protested ACRM for making changes to the AC72 Class Rule. According to this rule, changes can only be made with unanimous approval of the competitors.

ACRM claims that the safety recommendations became part of the rules since those recommendations were submitted to the US Coast Guard as part of the Marine Event Permit application.

ETNZ endorses almost all of the safety recommendations. But… they claim that the recommendation on “rudder elevators” (underwater wings a the ends of the rudders) is not a safety issue but a performance issue. And, they believe this change to the rule will benefit their competition. They don’t name Oracle Team USA as the team that will benefit, but Luna Rossa does.

If you want the techie details….

The class rule did not allow rudder elevators to extend outside the width of the hulls. ETNZ and Luna Rossa built asymmetric elevators to respect that rule. The rule also forbade adjusting the the angle of the elevators while racing, and required a new measurement certificate if the angle was changed between races, on shore. The rule as modified by ACRM eliminates those restrictions.

Remember that Luna Rossa bought their boat design from ETNZ, as permitted by the rules. Both teams have been foiling stably with asymmetric rudder elevators that comply with the original rules. They believe OTUSA and Artemis will benefit those teams can use rudder elevators with less restrictive rules.

America's Cup Luna Rossa's rudder, with elevator Photo: Pierre Orphanidis — Luna Rossa’s rudder, with elevator Photo: Pierre Orphanidis

America's Cup Luna Rossa's asymmetric rudder elevators Photo: Spitfile Image — Luna Rossa’s asymmetric rudder elevators Photo: Spitfile Image

What happens next? How will it affect the race schedule?

The International Jury will hear the protest beginning next Monday, July 8. ETNZ has already said they will accept the jury’s decision, regardless of whether it goes their way or not.

Luna Rossa may choose not to race until the jury makes its decision – meaning that the first round robin race may not happen until July 13. The race calendar is posted here.

If you want the gory detail of the rules and legal issues…

Attorney Cory Friedman gives his analysis of the protest and the rules situation here.

July 2, 2013 By Jack Griffin

Opening Ceremony / first races: July 4, 5, 7 schedule

Here is an overview of the schedule, with links to more detail on the AC website.

July 4: Opening Ceremony at AC Park – Pier 27-29

12:00 Ribbon cutting – AC Park

15:00 Opening Ceremony in AC Pavilion

The Park and exhibits are free. Admission to the Opening Ceremony is $10 with $9 going to the Healthy Ocean Project – a good cause!

The “Flying on Water” exhibit in the AC Park sounds like it should be interesting:

Features include a wind tunnel and an eight-foot section of an AC72 wing sail. A fan activates when you place your hand in the wind tunnel, and you’re able to trim the wing with your hand.

At the projection wall, fans can interact via a track ball with a 14-foot three-dimensional model of an AC72. Rotate the model by rotating the track ball and zoom in on certain sections of the model and factoids pop up.

A hydrofoiling experiment allows fans to press down on a mini daggerboard, which activates a projection of an AC72. The catamaran starts to gybe when you push on the daggerboard; lift it up and the boat starts to fly.

See the full 34th America’s Cup Opening Day program.

July 5: Boat Parade and AC72 Speed Trials

11:00 Boat Parade passes AC Park at Pier 27-29

The AC7s will be towed by their tenders in the boat parade.

12:15 AC72 Speed Trials, off Marina Green.

Watch the trial on big screens at Marina Green and in AC Park.

13:15 end of Speed Trials, AC72’s return to moorings at AC Park

14:00 Dock in show with sailors, at AC Park

See the AC website article about the events on July 5.

July 7: First race of the Louis Vuitton Cup round robin

Emirates Team New Zealand is scheduled to race Luna Rossa on Sunday 7 July, at 12:15.
That race may not happen, though, since Luna Rossa has said they do not want to race before the International Jury decides on the protest about changes to the design rule for the AC72. See the article below for details.

May 17, 2013 By Jack Griffin

Luna Rossa’s AC72 in California

While the safety Review Committee does its work, teams continue with their preparations for racing, scheduled to begin July 5. Luna Rossa has done load testing on their AC72 at their temporary base in Alameda.

In the photo above, we see that they have modified the stern, changed the size and location of the scuppers (drain holes) and lowered the grinding pedestals. I noted in an earlier article that Emirates Team New Zealand also lowered the grinding pedestals in their boat. Luna Rossa also has a new look – the lower half of the hull is now black. Assuming their dramatic silver finish is some kind of glue on foil, this could be a weight saving move. We saw the fairing on the rear crossbeam in photos from Auckland, but now they have integrated the pod for LiveLine electronics and the guest racer.

In the photo above, we see an S-shaped foil in the starboard hull and a slightly curved foil on the port side.

The “before” photo

Luna Rossa foiling in Auckland, before the modifications. On this day they had a straight board in the starboard hull. You can see the original location of the scuppers, the old stern shape and the rear crossbeam before the fairing was added. That all silver finish was very stylish, too!

April 29, 2013 By Jack Griffin

Big crash, confusing penalties in Naples

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.