Originally Posted by garda


As noted, if people using "wrong tactics" could get 6th and 7th in the Moth and A Class worlds (which Spithill and Slingsby have done) then the Moth and A Class guys must be pretty bad.


I'm not going as far as to say that, but fleet racing and match racing could be considered different disciplines.

It has been said that two-boat tactics in a fleet race are quite slow. Splitting with your opponent in a match race could be death, too.


All of these folk are at the pointy end of (any) fleet which justifies why they were picked for the AC campaign and can adapt/interpret very quickly.

If your boat was ever so slightly slower than the other boat, would you risk splitting the course on the chance the leading boat picked the wrong side of the course? Even if this meant an extra set of tacks/gybes which we all know costs several boatlengths (possibly more in AC boats)?

That's a gamble these teams have to make. In some cases, I think they'd have a hard time explaining to management why they didn't split (since I assume the management/coaches are "old school" match racers as well?).

But these new boats certainly call for new match racing tactics. How can you pressure the other team into a mistake... a mistake being dipping the windward hull or dropping off a foiling tack, or even having to point higher than the optimal angle for that team's foil package?

I noticed that the hunting maneuvers did seem to be more effective than I would have originally thought due to the speeds involved...

Seeing SWE drive all over NZL on many of the starts brought it home that new match racing tactics had to be employed... Simple things like off-wind starting lines all the way to complex things like different foils on each side of the boat to capitalize on that first/last reaching leg.

If NZL doesn't build fluid pressure as quickly, maybe USA needs to force them to make multiple maneuvers in the hopes that they'll drop off the foil.

Last edited by waterbug_wpb; 06/22/17 08:37 AM.

Jay