America's Cup - More retrospective rule changes split Challengers

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com NZ on 13 Dec 2016 The America's Cup Competitors Forum pushed through more retrospective Protocol changes, at a meeting believed to have been held in Fukuoka at the time of the America's Cup World Series held in the City.

Three changes were passed, but only one went through unanimously - relating to a tweaking of what constitutes launching the new AC50's ahead of the December 27, 2016, deadline.

One of the retrospective rule changes gives clear advantage to competitors who have opted to adopt the risky strategy of designing and developing light air and heavy air foiling daggerboards for the 35th America's Cup in Bermuda.

The way the rules stood before the publication of the amendment on November 17, a team could only build or acquire four foiling daggerboards.

One option was to build a set of light air foils and then a second set geared for stronger winds.

That would have taken up the limit of four daggerboards allowed. But there was a significant risk that is one of the boards broke (which has happened on several occasions in the current cycle through striking turtles and debris) then a team would be left with just their heavy or light air set intact. And if one of those boards broke the team was effectively out of the Cup.

(Under the current and previous rules the boards could only be replaced with the permission if the AC Regatta Director and Measurement Committee. Under the current Protocol any replacement board must be to the same IGES file as the original and within a tight weight tolerance as the original, but the point remains that a team could develop four unique daggerboards and have their twins in reserve.)

The other more conservative daggerboard design approach is to develop a set of all-weather boards, which under the four board limit provided a twin-set in the case of damage, and avoided the need to pick an optimal set of boards to get through two races per day if there was a significant increase/decrease in wind strength during racing.

The latter option was clearly more difficult from a technical design perspective to get to the level of the light/heavy foiling options with some trade-off being required for early foiling performance in the light, offset by increased drag in the heavier breezes.

The change published on November 17 completely changed the options for damaged daggerboard replacement – changing from just a single option of repair of the damaged board to three options - being a repair; or the use of a replacement board; or using a daggerboard from a Non-AC Yacht (AC45S).

Risk reduction
The effect of the retrospective daggerboard rule change is to remove almost all of the risk from a team pursuing the light/heavy air foiling development strategy by introducing the option of having up to two replacement dagger boards, plus the teams still have the option of using their AC45S daggerboards as substitutes within the increased limit from four boards to six.

Four of the five challengers signed off on the change - giving them the majority on the Challenger Committee. Defender, Oracle Team USA also signed.

It is not known how many of these, if any are pursuing a light and heavy air board strategy, as this would not normally be publicly disclosed, but would be known to any teams who are sharing performance information and others by reconnaissance (now without any limitation at all).

Further in a recent New York Times article, Oracle Team USA design team member Scott Ferguson told Christopher Clarey

The boards will be critical to success, and each team is allowed to use only four boards in its Cup boat during this cycle — a cost-cutting measure that allows little room for breakage, which is a genuine concern with submerged objects, and also puts a premium on getting the design right.

“We’ve learned that the size of the foils makes a big difference, and we have larger, longer foils” for lighter winds, Ferguson said. “We have smaller foils for when it’s breezier. So we can adapt the foils to suit the conditions.”

Still, Ferguson said his team would have preferred to produce more than four boards for the boat to cover a wider range of conditions. But the lead time required to manufacture the boards, which in Oracle’s case are produced in New Zealand, means that big decisions have to be made now for a regatta that won’t start until May.

That story was published on November 18, the Protocol change increasing the daggerboard number from four to six, plus other options was published on November 17, presumably after the interview had been done and before. For the full New York Times story click here

Emirates Team New Zealand was the only team not to sign their acceptance of the Protocol change - with the clear implication that the two times America's Cup winners have taken the Protocol at face value and developed an all-weather set of daggerboards with an identical set of replacements - and staying within the face value of the Protocol as it stood on November 16th.

Whether the other teams knew some time ago that they had the numbers to make a retrospective rule change is a matter for the conspiracy theorists. However pulling that sort of a stunt is a very serious matter.

The issue of the retrospective change to allow replacement boards and other options was highlighted in June 2016, when Tim Smyth, one of the principals of Core Builders Composites, builder of several of the AC50 catamarans to be sailed in Bermuda in the America's Cup Qualification and Match told Sail-World in a story published on June 6, 2016:

Smyth believes there is a glaring omission in the current Cup over the limitation on daggerboards to just four that will be insufficient in the case of breakage.

He notes that teams are likely to build two sets of daggerboards – one optimised for light winds and more displacement sailing – which will be lower drag, and the second set-orientated around high winds, foiling, and speed.

Break one board in that four (and almost every team except Team NZ broke at least one daggerboard in the last Cup), and it is not possible to build a replacement in the time left in the regatta. Any repair is likely to be very involved if indeed it is possible to obtain the required structural strength.

Normally an America's Cup daggerboard takes eight weeks from design to build completion, and a replacement using the same tooling, up to six weeks.

“Limiting the boards to just four will be dangerous. The teams can’t even build an identical spare without sacrificing a ‘card’– they are supposed to repair them when they are broken. I think it is a glaring anomaly,” Smyth explains.

The replacement rule is made even softer because a daggerboard only counts as part of the allocation after it is installed in the AC50 and the boat is floated with that fitted to that daggerboard.

Making four turn into six or eight
The clear work-around for the daggerboard limit is to have a number in stock and maybe dry-installed, and then put back in the rack in case one is required as a replacement during racing.

That strategic option then means that a team opting for the heavy air and light air daggerboard foils could have a racing set of four and then another maybe four ready to go in the shed for effectively eight boards. Provided they only register six in total from December 27, 2015, to the end of the 35th America’s Cup, then they have complied with the Protocol.

Plus they also have the ability to draw on one of their set of AC45S boards if they have adopted the policy of using AC50 specification daggerboards on their test boats. That gives another six boards in stock – although, in reality, only the last couple would be to the latest design used by the team.

The multiplicity of dagger board options gets around being able to pluck a board at short notice if say the port light-weather board was broken and need to be replaced overnight.

Having a stash of daggerboards is not far-fetched if the AC50 remains as the America's Cup yacht for AC36. America's Cup teams acquire a lot of kit during the course of a campaign and on selling unused daggerboards that can be used with an AC45S or AC50 to new teams wanting a jump start to their campaign is a real possibility.

The advantage of the light/heavy air daggerboard option became plain in the last America’s Cup World Series in Fukuoka with a small increase in wind-speed from 8kts to 10kts was enough to get the AC45 One Designs on their foils and doubling their boat speed.

It follows that with the AC50 if winds are at the lighter end of the scale (racing can start with as little as 6kts of breeze) then there will be a significant advantage in using a set of foils that will get an AC50 up quickly and sailing at three times the wind-speed.

Of course, if heavier air is forecast then the team would load their heavy air set, with lower drag but still producing the lift required to keep the AC50 foil-borne and at the top end hit speeds expected to be around 50kts.

The team which only has a single set is compromised in that they are struggling to foil in the light, and are slower in the top end of the wind range (25kts maximum wind strength).

Potentially the only place there they will be competitive is in the middle of the wind range – around 11-14kts.

Why so long?
The obvious question is why it has taken 18 months to get this Protocol Change introduced and passed?

Oracle Team USA was the first team to sail an AC45S test boat in early May 2015. The issue with the daggerboard limit of four being a high-risk option for teams using light/heavy air daggerboards was in the public arena in early June 2016, and yet the Protocol change did not come through until five months later, and just five weeks before teams are allowed to launch their AC50’s.

Given that it takes eight to nine weeks to build an AC50 daggerboard let along the many months leading into that build for design and testing, the team(s) that have read the Protocol at face value and assumed it meant what it said – that four is four and not six or eight – are now at a significant competitive disadvantage.

Those that took the risk of a light/heavy-weather board strategy have picked up the competitive gain and had the downside risk wiped out through a late and retrospective Protocol change.

The change to the complex daggerboard replacement rules which now run to four pages of the 80 page plus Protocol is the third significant retrospective Rule change of the 35th America’s Cup.

The first came in March 2015 when the class of yacht to be used changed from an AC62 to the smaller AC50, again by the vote of the majority of competitors only. That change resulted in the second Challenger of Record, Italy’s Luna Rossa exiting the competition appalled that the class of boat to be used could be changed nine months after the entries opened.

The second major retrospective change came three months later in June 2015 when the Constructed in Country provisions of the Protocol were modified to require just a 2.7metre of the bow section of the AC50 hull to be laminated in the country of the defending/challenging club. Previously the complete outer surface of the hulls had to be constructed in the country of the team’s club.

Several America’s Cup rules experts believe that last amendment is contrary to the requirements of the 19th century Deed of Gift that governs the America’s Cup. And that situation could be tested at any time including after the America’s Cup is finished in July 2017. It is a matter for the New York Supreme Court rather than the anonymous Arbitration Panel.

Blame for the ongoing contretemps can be laid firmly at the door of the departed Luna Rossa.

Under the protocol, the Challenger of Record (along with the Defender) has the right to approve any changes to the Protocol, regardless of how the majority of the other challengers decide to vote.

Had the Italians not handed over that Right to a majority vote of the Challenger Committee, and effectively retained the power of veto for themselves, they could have blocked the change of boat from the AC62 to the AC50. They could have blocked the change of requirement of Construction in Country from a full hull to just the bow section. And they could have elected not to approve the current late change to the now four-page very complex Daggerboard rule.

Instead the Italians decided to make a magnanimous gesture, allow the formation of a Challenger Committee and for that Committee to be able to exercise the Challenger of Record's right of approval by a simple majority. That transition document was published on March 31, 2015 and given immediate effect. A day later, on April 1, 2015, the class was changed from the AC62 to the AC50, by a majority vote and Luna Rossa was out of the 35th America's Cup. On the same day the Qualification Round the the 35th America's Cup was removed from Auckland and shifted to Bermuda.

The justification for the change to a smaller class was cost reduction which would bring in new teams. In the end it was just a switch-out of four time challenger Luna Rossa for first time challenger Softbank Team Japan.

It is not known if this latest matter will be heading the way of the anonymous America’s Cup Arbitration Panel.

Under another majority Protocol change parties involved in the 35th America’s Cup are not allowed to comment on any matter before the Panel, or if indeed they are going to take a matter to the Panel for a ruling, which requires a US$25,000 lodgement fee.

The imposition of a blackout on all matters relating to the three-man Arbitration Panel who have not even been publicly announced came in June 2016, just a three weeks before Emirates Team New Zealand had a Hearing over the loss of the Qualifiers from Auckland. That blackout was again imposed by majority vote only.

The NZ team is strongly believed to have won that complaint although neither the Decision or financial remedy has been announced. However the Arbitration Panel is expected to award substantial damages against event organiser the San Francisco based Golden Gate Yacht Club.

The third Protocol change passed in Fukuoka, again by a majority, only served to extend further the draconian “Adverse public comment” provisions of the current Protocol, to include not just the current America’s Cup but all future plans for the America’s Cup competition or commercial programs.

The first AC50's are allowed to be launched in two weeks time, on or after December 27, 2016, with the first round in the Louis Vuitton America's Cup Qualification Series due to start in Bermuda, six months later on May 27, 2017.