Congratulations & Thanks

Nice letter emailed to the Challengers last evening by Commodore W H Dyer Jones, AC 32 Regatta Director, and posted here with his kind permission....


Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the Race Committee, I want to thank all competitors for their patience, cooperation, and understanding during the recently completed Round Robin series of the Louis Vuitton Cup. We know it was as difficult for you as it was for us.

We wish to congratulate the 4 teams that will now proceed to the Semi-final stage next week; and equally importantly, to thank those teams which are excused from further racing, for their tremendous effort with us over the last four years. We have enjoyed your spirit and determination to excel. We wish every member of every team all best in the future; we are sure our paths will cross at another sailing event soon.

We also want to thank all of the Race Volunteers who stuck with us for many more days than they had committed to without any days-off.

Finally, we extend out thanks for their support and assistance to the Capitanería de Valencia and the Capitán Marítimo, Red Cross, Guardia Civil, Salvamento Marítimo, the Spanish Navy, and the Port of Valencia. No racing is scheduled for 10-13 May. We look forward to racing starting again on 14 May 2007 in the Semi-finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

For the Race Committee,

Dyer Jones
Regatta Director
32nd America's Cup

What a Way to Run a Regatta

Excerpt from an editorial on the Sail World website by Bob Fisher:


'We did analysis of the [weather] statistics and Valencia was always the best,' said America’s Cup Management CEO, Michel Bonnefous at a press conference this morning, and stuck to that line through intensive questioning. 'We have done precise research and have good numbers – the worst case in April was losing four days.'

One of the sailing crew aboard Emirates Team New Zealand recalled after that press conference that there were nine days last April when sailing was not possible. Does that collaborate America’s Cup Management’s 'precise research'? No. Bonnefous called this year’s lack of wind, 'An unusually bad stretch of light weather.'

It could have been avoided by holding the entire event later in the year, but Bonnefous explained that ACM had chosen the ideal date for the America’s Cup match and worked backwards from there. On that basis, little consideration was given to the challengers to allow them to present a worthy opponent for the defender.

This situation does not benefit any of the challengers and is the result of one organisation running the racing for the challengers and defenders. All benefits go to the defender and enhance Alinghi’s ability to mount a successful defence. It is a situation that must never be repeated.

Perhaps the words of Paul Elvstrom should be brought to the attention of those in charge of this regatta. 'You haven’t won the race, if in winning the race you’ve lost the respect of your competition.'

Full story

MEDIA STATEMENT -- CC Meeting, 20 April 2007

The Challenger Commission for the 32nd America's Cup (“CC”) met at the call of the Chair, Alessandra Pandarese (ITA) of Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team, at the ACM offices in Valencia at 0800 this morning, Friday 20 April. Representatives of all eleven Challengers were present.

Main decisions and points of discussion:

+ The Regatta Director's proposal to "re-boot" (our word, not his) Round Robin 1 was unanimously supported. This means Flights 1 and 2 previously re-scheduled for today, originally a reserve day, would be sailed (attempted!). Going forward, subsequent flights will be raced in sequence, two flights per day, i.e., Flights 3 and 4 tomorrow (Saturday), etc. If one or both of today's flights are postponed, they would be rescheduled for tomorrow, kept in sequence, and the balance of the RR1 schedule pushed back accordingly. RR1 will be completed before any races of RR2 are started. However, when some but not all matches of a given flight (of ten matches) are completed, the uncompleted matches will be rescheduled later in RR1 (on a race or reserve day) as the Regatta Director deems equitable and expedient.

+ The Regatta Director will work on the pairing list to equalize to the extent possible use among teams of the buoyed courses and the north inner course (the so-called "stadium course") which will be the primary racing area later in the LVC and for the Match, and to minimize if not eliminate the need for any team to have to swap course areas on a two-race day.

+ There will be no relaxation of the minimum 7kt wind limit or shortening of courses, nor more than two flights scheduled per day.

+ The CC kept their options open so far as how to proceed beyond the end of RR1 given the challenging forecasts for continued light air today, Saturday and Sunday. Open issues include whether or not an "off day" should be scheduled at the completion of RR1 regardless how late RR1 ends. Also under consideration is whether to delay the start of the LVC Semifinals by a day or two assuming RR2 runs long.

+ The CC affirmed its long-held view that a high priority for RR2 is to have no more than one race per day and over the longer (3.3nm) course that will be used in the LVC Semis, Finals and the AC Match.

LVC: Round Robins Pairing List Schedule

Issued Sunday by Regatta Director Dyer Jones:

This is the pairing list based on the Louis Vuitton Cup Notice of Race and established from the final challenger rankings following Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 13. Under normal circumstances, Matches one to three of each Flight will be sailed on the northern race area with the ‘Romeo’ Race Committee while Matches four through six will be on the southern race area, with the ‘Juliet’ Race Committee.

For Round Robin One the Race Committee intends to start no more than two flights of races each day, with the first warning signal scheduled to sound at 14:05. If, due to weather conditions, it is impossible to run all the scheduled Matches on a day, the Regatta Director will respect the original pairing list as much as possible and re-schedule the un-sailed matches on the first available slots available (reserve days and one race days).

For Round Robin Two the Race Committee intends to start no more than one flight of races each day, with the first warning signal scheduled to sound at 14:05. If, due to weather conditions, it is impossible to run all the scheduled Matches on a day, or if there are matches un-sailed remaining from Round Robin One, the Regatta Director will respect the original pairing list as much as possible and re-schedule the un-sailed matches as the second start of the day until the schedule is back on track and then on the first available reserve day.

The Media Centre will publish every race day a document called the Morning Briefing. It will always contain the day’s programme and should be referred to for the day’s pairings, the current results table, the weather forecast and highlights of the previous day’s racing.

AC 32 Format

We get asked almost daily to explain how the somewhat complicated (at least for the Challengers) AC32 format works. Believe it or not, for this 32nd edition the Louis Vuitton Cup series is the simplest and most straightforward since probably the first LVC was conducted in 1983. Just think back to 2003 LVC format and the mystifying "repechage" round!

AC 32's format is, however, made a bit confusing by (a) the accumulation of "ranking points" by Challengers during the Acts, (b) the resultant bonus points carried into the Round Robin phase of the LVC by each of the 11 Challengers, and (c) the two points per win during the RRs.

On the theory that a picture is worth a thousand words, BMW ORACLE Racing produced a graphic that many say explains the AC 32 format and schedule very well. This helpful graphic is posted and available for download on their team blog.

"To win the America's Cup, first win the Louis Vuitton Cup."

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.