The Christmas Race in mid-December gave an impression of what the America's Cup has to offer: gripping duels, exciting pre-start phases, technically extremely demanding sailing - but also big differences in the performance of the teams, sometimes crazy races in light winds, in which alone the answer to the question of victory decided who got on the foils first and got the boat flying.
In the night from Thursday to Friday, the elimination of the challengers begins. That means, the Italian team LunRossa, the American team Magic and the British team Ineos sail against each other several times. First of all, this weekend the so-called Round Robin 1 and 2, each twice against each other. There are two more rounds of these on the following weekend. Then the losers sail against each other again, the better of these two then against the winner of the Round Robins. The winner of this final qualifying round will then play against the New Zealanders.
The most exciting thing in these first two laps, which run until Sunday, will be the progress the three challengers have made in the three weeks since the Christmas Race. Because the British in particular had shown clear disadvantages in maneuvers and in the low wind range.
Two races are planned for the first day. Ineos Team UK and American Magic will play the opening, then Ineos will have to play LunRossran again.
The qualification mode up to the final
The races start every day at 3 p.m. outside Auckland, four races are planned for the first three days. The semifinals and the final will follow on Sunday. All races are broadcast live free of charge and are on the Cup website, on Youtube as Facebook to pursue. No extra app is required for mobile devices. The reps should be made available on these channels immediately after the end of each race.
This is especially important for all those who don't want to spend the night on their own. Because New Zealand is twelve hours ahead of Germany, so the races start here at 3 a.m., the first on Thursday at 3 a.m.
The free-to-air Austrian TV channel Servus TV also broadcasts the races live in the program and in the stream.
Foretaste: The best scenes of the Christmas Race
The most important thing about the new racing format
- The Wind limit is between 6.5 and 21 knots
- The time limit for the first cross is 12 minutes, for a race 45 minutes
- Started becomes like normal regattas against the wind. There will probably be exciting pre-start phases when the teams try to get each other off the foils or give the opponent a penalty
- Both opponents dive from opposite sides and from windward behind the start line. The boat coming from the left and on port tack, which has no right of way, has a lead of 10 seconds in order to avoid collisions.
- The Announcement signal takes place three minutes before the start. Until then, the Boats towed in if there is not enough wind to get on the foils (similar to the moths). Then it's just a matter of not falling off the foils in the pre-start phase.
- The Preparation signal takes place 2 minutes before the start. From this point on, the start box, the pre-start side, can be entered. Every yacht must be in this box at the latest 1 minute before the start be immersed. No team can avoid a pre-start match.
- If a yacht capsizes and the crew can erect the boat without outside help, the team may continue sailing.
- When a team breaks a rule, they get one Stop penalty. If it is on the same bow as the opponent, it must fall back 50 meters behind the opponent, on a different bow it must stop until it has lost 50 meters.
- Marks may be touched will not trigger a penalty.
- The Space at markings, otherwise defined as a two-boat-length circle, is 70 meters to the Lane boundariesthat must not be driven over, 90 meters.
- The Racetrack is approximately 1.7 nautical miles long and between 0.5 and 0.8 nautical miles wide. If you sail over the limits, this triggers a stopping penalty (see above).
- It will be a Windward-Lee course sailed.
- In each case windward and leeward is through Gates sailed from two markings. Which of these is rounded is optional.
- Does a boat cause one Early start, it has to brake until it falls behind the opponent.
- The Race duration is 25 to 27 minutes.
- How many Round are to be sailed, depends on the chosen race course and the conditions. The course is set at 10 a.m. each day.
Foretaste: The best scenes of the Christmas Race