John Casey Worldwide

The fallout from AC33 has been tremendous. Discussion has focused on the original intentions of the DoG and the America’s Cup in general. Of course, the original trophy race, before it was called the America’s Cup, was a distance race. Since, however, this mega budget regatta has turned into a match race event often times won by the best designed yacht. The split of thought now is whether it is more a match race or design race.

Why has this happened? The last AC had two starkly different designs racing the DoG course. Many feel this was strictly a design contest and there was no prestart action.
Let’s look at race one: Holy crap a dial-up! The problem after the dial-up was USA17 stalled and couldn’t get the jib into play because they had a bobstay for the wing. Otherwise, they might have cracked off and followed Alinghi for control. Or they could have went the other way for starboard advantage. It could have been an intense start! After the start there was a left shift which would have given any boat a nice lead. The problem during the shift is that Alinghi never attacked. When they saw USA 17 starting to get inside, they just let them go by. Is that the boat’s fault or the team? Alinghi was not sailed well either, which definately has something to do with it.

Race Two: Alinghi was late getting out of the H and late getting into the start box. This was actually pretty pathetic at this level of racing. Since Alinghi was late, USA 17 was sailed in front of them easily. No dial-up like race one. This allowed USA to time the start and go for it. If Alinghi had any idea about timing, they would have been in a better position as well. They were in position to do a block, but they were early and had to slow down, which gave Spithill the ‘hook.’ Alinghi did a downspeed tack and off they slowly went to what was ‘maybe’ the side they wanted.

After a loose cover by USA, Alinghi hooked up in pressure and a nice right shift. Classic tack move and USA had to lead to the left side. In another tactical debacle, on the port layline Alinghi sailed beyond USA and didn’t attack whatsoever. There is no way they didn’t know the first boat to the windward mark had an incredible advantage with almost no passing lanes in the next two legs. In that move, they not only handed USA the win on a platinum platter, but they did an incredible amount of damage to multis as match racing platforms.

If they had somehow gotten to the top mark in the lead the rest of the race could have been amazing. Of course, USA was more powerful on the reach, but Alinghi could have defended the whole way! We wouldn’t have had time to run our Irish soundbites on our coverage. As the day faded, just a few kilometers from the finish, there was a huge right shift again, which in the end might have made the difference in the race.

Am I blaming Alinghi for making AC33 known as a design race and not a match race? Well, a little. What I really think is two races is not enough data to make a conclusion. I’ve seen plenty of match races in monos that were absolutely boring. One boat gets ahead and the other takes a flyer with the leading boat doing a very loose cover and ends up winning by minutes. At least when the AC33 yachts had a ton of separation they were still fun to watch fly through the water. Two races is not enough to make a determination. Above that, these multis are more extreme than what mutual consent would bring.

Data is the problem here. In the past the ‘Little America’s Cup’ on C-cats has been a design contest, and coverage has been poor. There is not enough data to point to and go, “there, look at that close match racing.” There is also The International Catamaran Challenge Trophy (ICCT), which was on C-class but recently on Javelin 2 cats. The competitors say it was excellent match racing, but there is still nothing to point to definitively. There was also the recent event in Extreme 40s, but the video for that isn’t enough either.

What multis need is more data. We need to have some match race regattas soon, so the sailing world, including the teams involved in the next AC, can make a determination. The decision regarding the next AC yacht will be made over the next few months, so this has to happen pretty quickly. The interest is there, from yachties who want to prove multis can’t do the ‘dance,’ to those who want an exciting and NEW AC 34. All cats, from A-cats to Extreme 40s, in my opinion, should be biting to do this! Let’s rock it!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 2:37 pm and is filed under America's Cup 33.