America's Cup for beginners

Although the America's Cup competition is as much about design technology as it is about sailing boats, superior speed is rarely enough to win a race on its own. The seventeen active crew members on board each boat are at the top of their game and must each give their absolute best in the effort to win.

America's Cup match racing is a team effort
Whether it is the foredeck crew luring the helmsman to bring the bow of the boat towards the start line in the last moments of a heated countdown, or the grinders putting their backs into the winch handles for the 37th tack on the third upwind leg of a race being sailed in 23 knots of wind, or whether it is the tactician who has to make that one crucial, risky and opportunist decision at the only time during a two-hour race when a chance to break the control of the leading boat presents itself, America's Cup match racing is a team effort; a team effort of the highest order, but one where the nuances are occasionally difficult to understand.

Blocking the opponent's chances
All yacht racing is about winning but winning a match race means beating just one other boat. The basic principal, a bit like marking an opponent in a ball game, consists of blocking the opponent's chances of passing by placing your boat firmly between the opponent and the next mark. But to do that you have to be in front and in control. If you are behind match racing consists of drawing the leader on a merry dance around the course to try and force him into making a mistake, or putting yourself in a position where your superior speed can be used to get past.

Three key segments
Getting more analytical about it, match racing has three key segments, the pre-start - the five minute countdown to the start gun, the first leg - the section from the start gun to rounding the first mark about one sixth of the way into the course, and the rest - from rounding the first mark of the course to crossing the finish line, the remaining five sixths of the distance.

The weapon
The class of boat used for the 32nd America's Cup is the America's Cup Class (ACC). It is designed to a specific rule with several hard and soft limits, and trades length, weight and sail area, the three major factors involved in sailboat performance. The designers must make decisions to come up with the best solution of trade-offs for the weather conditions expected.

Maximum of two new boats
This class has been used for the America's Cup competition since 1992 and more than 80 have been built; 19 alone for the 31st America's Cup. Each syndicate is allowed to build a maximum of two new boats for the 32nd America's Cup and they must be built in the country of origin of the yacht club the team represents.

Team work
Every America's Cup team sets up its sailing team in a slightly different manner. The strengths and weaknesses and the experience of the specific personnel on a team will dictate what division of duties will work best for that team. This is a ‘typical' set-up for an America's Cup sailing team:

1 - Bowman
Bowmen are usually strong, acrobatic, and have large reserves of courage. The bowman must connect the sheets and halyards to the headsails and spinnakers when sails are changed, including attaching sheets to the outboard end of the spinnaker pole, which usually means dangling above and in front of the boat. The bowman is called upon to scale the mast whenever there is a problem aloft and also calls the startline and overlaps, relaying distance information to the afterguard with handsignals.

2 – Mid-Bow / Sewer
The midbow / sewer is a very physical position, demanding great strength, agility and at times an iron-clad stomach to avoid seasickness. On deck, the midbowman works with the mast and pit crew during sail changes. Usually, the midbow also runs the ‘sewer' below decks, packing and stowing all the sails before and after changes. That means plenty of time below on a bucking boat, with water pouring through the hatches – hence the term sewer.

4 – Pitman
The pitman usually manages the forward part of the boat, coordinating all the halyards and sail changes that take place during a race. The pitman usually doubles as a grinder, so size and strength are good characteristics for this job.

5 – Foredeck / Mast
The mastman works closely with the pitman, especially during sail hoists, using his weight on the halyard to raise the sail with the grinders and pitman taking up the slack. During a spinnaker gybe, the mastman often works with the bow team.

6/7 - Grinders
In a very real sense, the grinders are the engine of an America's Cup boat. They man the winches that reel in all the sheets and halyards, putting immense stress on their bodies during any sail hoist, tack or gybe as they spend long periods of inactivity punctuated by sudden explosive bursts of energy.

8/9 - Trimmers
The genoa and spinnaker trimmers control the sails at the front of the boat. Sailing upwind, they work with the skipper/helmsman to determine whether the boat sails as close to the wind as possible, sacrificing speed, or sails a slightly lower, longer course at a faster speed. Both ‘modes' are important, depending on the tactical situation on the race course. The best trimmers can instinctively generate more speed from the boat, as the tactical situation requires, before the onboard computers can pick it up.

10 – Mainsail Grinder
Works the big ‘coffee grinder' winch that controls the mainsail.

11 - Mainsail Trimmer
The mainsail trimmer controls the position of the mainsail, and is very important in helping the helmsman switch between ‘high' and ‘fast' modes.

12 – Runners
Controls the running backstay, and works with the trimmers and helmsman to keep the boat at target VMG (speed). Usually helps the rest of the afterguard with boat on boat tactics.

13 - Traveller
Works the mainsail traveller, controlling speed upwind, and helps the afterguard.

14 – Helmsman / Skipper
The skipper is responsible for making the final tactical decisions on the boat. The helmsman steers the boat, and is responsible for maximising speed in all situations. The helmsman must also be prepared to respond to fast developing, tactical situations, and instinctively know where to place the boat. This may or may not be the same person.

15 - Navigator
The navigator uses the on-board computers and electronics to relay information to the tactician, helmsman, and strategist.

16/17 – Tactician / Strategist
The tactician and strategist work with the rest of the afterguard on race strategy, both immediate and long-term. They distil information from the trimmers, the helmsman, and the navigator before forming a plan. During intense manoeuvres they may assist in the crew work.

The race course
The race course is specifically set out to test the balance between boat speed and match racing ability in a team. The course is up to 18.55 nautical miles in length and consists of up to three laps of a right-handed windward-leeward course between a windward mark at the top of the course and a leeward gate near the bottom of the course. The start and finish line are the same at the bottom of the course.

Balance between boat speed and technical skill
The leg lengths are the perfect size for allowing the crews on each boat to express their ability with boat speed and tactical skill. If the legs were much longer the boat speed element would dominate and no matter how good a crew was a faster boat would just about always win. If the legs were much shorter the tactical ability only of a crew would dictate the outcome and a boat's finishing position would be based on the situation just after the start.

The leeward gate
As it is always hard to pass when trailing, several features have been incorporated into the race course to give the trailing boat a chance. The mark rounding at the top of the course is to starboard which often gives the trailing boat an advantage if they are close when they approach from the right. The second feature, new for the 32nd America's Cup, is a leeward gate, two buoys placed approximately 6 boat lengths apart, between which each boat must pass before rounding one or the other and starting the next upwind leg. By rounding the buoy not used by the leading boat this gate always gives the trailing boat the opportunity to start the next leg differently with a significant amount of lateral separation and the chance to break cover.

Placing the wind shadow
The final feature that helps the trailing boat is the downwind finish. On the upwind legs the leading boat dictates the tactics in a match race and is able to place its wind shadow where it wants on the trailing boat to keep it behind. On the downwind leg the reverse applies and the trailing boat is in a more advantageous position, and is often able to blanket the wind blowing towards the leading boat and sail past. As the last leg of the race is always downwind, close finishes and last minute upsets are always possible.

The pre-start
The pre-start is the most exciting part of the race and is often the hardest to understand. The start is obviously the first place that one of the two teams can get into the lead and so winning the start is of the utmost importance. Who has won the start is also not always immediately obvious. Crossing the start line ahead may be less important than starting on the favoured side of the line, or having the ability to tack and control your position immediately after the gun has fired. In the 2003 Louis Vuitton Cup, the first boat across the start line won the race 51% of the time. The teams crossed at the same time in 9% of the races, and in 40% of the races, the second boat across the start line went on to win the race.

Formulating a race plan
Every race day on the tow out to the course each crew is thinking about the day's opponents. What happened last time they met, and the specific strengths or weaknesses of the opposite team will be considered. Will today's conditions suit us more, is our skipper on fire, is the team tired, have we got the right sails on board? These are questions of the afterguard as it formulates a race plan. Then there is the weather. The big question before the start for both boats is, which way will the wind shift first after the start gun has fired and so which side of the course should be protected.

Communications blackout
A ten-minute warning gun is fired to bring the racing crew to attention and to give them time to get rid of unwanted sails and equipment and collect the last bits of intelligence from the weather team and coaches before a communications blackout with the rest of the world begins. When the five-minute gun is fired and the crews are under the starters' orders, no outside assistance is allowed.

Dominating the starting box
With all of the strategic and tactical questions answered, a crew will take its boat downwind into the starting box as the five-minute gun has fired and engage the opponent. For the purposes of identification the boat entering from the right hand end of the line will fly a yellow flag from its stern whereas the boat entering from the left hand end will fly a blue flag. The five-minute countdown to the start gun, often called the pre-start period, is used by both opponents to attempt to dominate the opposition through a series of manoeuvres, set plays and good old-fashioned skill. The pre-start period has two aims, firstly to start well and on the correct side of your opponent and secondly to avoid being penalised whilst trying to force a penalty onto the opponent in the close quarter manoeuvring.

One on the left, one on the right
Judging the time and distance in the final approach to the start line with the aim of hitting it at full speed as the gun goes is a critical timing moment and represents one of the most sought after skills in an America's Cup helmsman. Cross too early and a boat must return and start again, losing time to the opposition. Cross too late and the opposition will benefit from this oversight. As the start gun goes the two boats will be seen crossing the start line heading upwind towards the first mark. But a closer look at the pair will reveal that one boat has the left, while the other has the right side of the race course. They may be close, one might have crossed the line ahead of the other but only one of the boats has the left or the right. As the wind shifts in one direction or the other, the boat on the side of the direction of the wind shift will benefit.

Umpires and whistle blowing
Yacht racing is a gentlemanly sport and one of the unique elements of the pastime was the ability to protest the outcome of a race if one of the competitors felt there had been a breach of the rules. All major sailing events have an International Jury composed of at least five rules specialists who may, if asked, conduct a hearing to establish the facts and determine if there has indeed been a breach of the rules and then what the punishment should be. This unfortunately often meant that the outcome of the race could be overturned in a hearing ashore hours later. For an event with a popular fan base and an ever hungry media, the possibility of a result being overturned hours after the race had finished was not a healthy state of affairs.

On-the-Water Umpires
In 1992, at the start of the current America's Cup Class generation, On-the-Water Umpires were introduced and started speeding around the race-course in small powerboats monitoring incidents and doling out penalties and instant justice. Their job then, as it is now, is to determine if any of the Racing Rules of Sailing have been broken during the match and to respond to protest calls from either of the two competing yachts. The umpires can impose a penalty turn on an infringing boat, which requires a turn through at least 270 degrees of arc, one gybe on an upwind leg and one tack on a downwind leg, to exonerate oneself. This turn often represents a loss of more than 30 seconds, enough for the outcome of the race to be altered.

Hoisting the protest flag
During the pre-start and elsewhere around the course both boats manoeuvre against each other, sometimes in extremely confined waters, and often less than a metre apart from each other. This game of wits often results in protests from one or other of the boats, although actual collisions are indeed rare. By hoisting a yellow and red diagonally-striped protest flag, a yacht is requesting the umpires to penalise the other boat following what the protesting yacht considers to have been a breach of the right of way rules.

Quick decision
The umpires must consider the situation quickly and make a decision about the true facts before communicating back to the two yachts. If the umpires consider there has not been any breach they will fly a green flag - all-clear. If however one or the other yacht has indeed breached one of the right of way rules the umpires will fly either a blue or yellow flag corresponding to the boat that is at fault. The penalty turn must be completed before the boat finishes the course but it can be carried out at any time around unless it is the second penalty that a boat has collected, in which case a penalty turn must be carried out straight away.

To try and force the opponent into a foul
A yacht with a penalty can decide to race around the course and try and get a sufficient buffer of distance between it and the opponent to make the penalty turn and still remain in the lead. Alternatively, if this is proving impossible, a penalised boat can try and force the opponent into a foul that is in turn penalised by the umpires. This has the effect of offsetting and cancelling the first penalty. On-the-Water Umpires dramatically changed the face of match racing and gave us what we now have today; a highly refined version of an old art. The battle on the water now also involves forcing the opponent into a foul situation whilst avoiding the aggressive advances of the opponent trying to achieve the same ends. Thankfully there are now seldom protests after races and these only concern technical issues and never the right of way rules - The first boat across the finish line is the winner.


Source:

- www.americascup.com