Act 13 and LVC Notices of Race

As previously reported, on New Year's Eve AC 32 Regatta Director Dyer Jones published the Notices of Race for Act 13 and for the Louis Vuitton Cup (Challenger Selection Series). Both are now available to download as Adobe .pdf documents here:

Act 13

Louis Vuitton Cup

We are receiving many requests for a simple summary of the 2007 racing program, to wit:

Act 13 -- Tuesday through Friday 3-6 April, Act 13 is the final AC 32 "pre-regatta," and the last time the Challengers and Defender will race together until the AC 32 Match in June. Fleet racing, seven races scheduled over the four days, nominally two races per day except the final day, with one Reserve Day (7 April) in case all seven races have not been completed by 6 April. For Challenger Ranking points under the Valencia Plan, Act 13 is a "times three" regatta (2006 Acts were "times two" and 2005 "times one"), meaning the top Act 13 Challenger will score 11 x 3 or 33 Challenger Ranking Points, the second Challenger 10 x 3 or 30 points, and so on. The current Challenger Ranking Points leaderboard is here.

(In accordance with the Valencia Plan, at the end of Act 13 the Challenger with the most Challenger Ranking Points is given four bonus points to carry into the Rounds Robin, and the remaining Challengers are broken into three groups with three, two and one bonus point(s) each. Results from the Acts can also figure into tie breaking during the LVC rounds robin phase.)

LVC -- The Round Robin phase begins Monday 16 April (though there is continuing discussion about some Challengers racing their first matches on Sunday 15 April for promotional purposes -- this will be resolved at the CC meeting at the end of January). There will be two full Rounds Robin. RR1 is two races per day; RR2, one race per day. During each RR a Challenger races each of the other ten Challengers once, meaning 10 races per RR for a total of 20 races over the two RRs. Two points for each RR win. Therefore, a maximum of 40 points possible if you win all 20 of your RR races, and a maximum of 44 points total if you are the lead Challenger and carry four bonus points into the RRs.

(The reason each win in the RRs scores two points, instead of one point, is so the max Valencia Plan bonus points would only be about 10% -- 9.09% to be more precise -- of the total possible points in the LVC Rounds Robin. Had we used one point per win, we would have needed to use partial bonus points, and that would have been confusing for the media and fans to say nothing of the rest of us.)

On or about 6 May, RR2 will be over. The four Challengers with the top scores advance to the Semis. The other seven are "excused from further participation" as NYYC used to say. First place among the four gets to choose which of the other three it will race in its Semi.

The Semis begin 14 May and are head-to-head (knock out) series, first-to-win-five races. Winners advance to the Finals; losers go home.

The Finals begin 1 June, again first-to-win-five races. Winner goes to the AC 32 Match; loser goes home.

AC 32 Match -- The Match begins Saturday 23 June and is also first-to-win five. It should all be over, except possibly the shouting/celebrating, by the 4th of July.