Originally Posted by brucat
Originally Posted by Isotope235
Originally Posted by brucat
NZL really had no chance to win, coming in on PORT, had to gybe to get around for the reaching leg to finish. SWE just needed to go wide and give NZL room.

No, coming into the final rounding mark NZ was on starboard tack, and SWE was on port. They were nearly even but NZ needed to gybe to round the mark.

It wasn't a matter of enough room - simply a starboard/port situation. Had NZ not crash-gybed (or rounded up), they would have hit SWE.

SWE needed to go a bit further before their last gybe, so they'd have room to take NZ's transom at the mark and roll NZ with speed. They didn't, and lost the protest.


Wow, I really typed that wrong. Thanks for correcting that, Eric.

But, I still say SWE had it won, even on port. All they had to do was go wide and win. I don't think NZL could have gybed fast enough around that mark to get ahead for the final reach leg.

Besides, looking at those photos, could NZL really have continued to go past the layline to the mark to attack SWE at that point? I know they use different rules than the standard RRS. Under standard RRS, going beyond that layline would have been sailing above proper course, as they were outside the zone.

Mike


Mike,

I've skimmed the rules and it looks like, had NZL been able to force Artemis to avoid, they could have ignored the gate and done so. However, the boundary zone was really close to that gate and it would have come into play very very quickly and I'm not even sure Artemis would have had time for two gybes without breaching the boundary.

I'm convinced that this three boat length circle is FAR too small for these boats. They enter and are out of that zone in about 3 seconds during normal roundings. There's no way any decisions and relevant maneuvers are going to be made in that zone like we're accustomed to. If that zone were twice as large (6 boat lengths), now the actual rounding rules might come into play - or the rules need to be different somehow...Regardless, there is a screwy rule thing in the AC rule 18 and the course descriptions where that looks like that rounding at the bottom just before the finish would still considered a gate and not a single mark to be rounded even though they need to turn left to get to the finish. They have a course option for the finish to follow a single mark in the middle of the course but the finish after those two marks still call them a gate and there are specific rule differences between marks and gates.

https://docs.google.com/a/acracemgt...b3RpY2Vib2FyZHxneDo3MWQ1ZjgxYThhNjY2NDRh

Jake Kohl