Off Plymouth hunting again today from 15.10 ( broadcast live here ) the AC-45 catamarans across the channel - in both senses of the word. But many people don't seem to realise what the teams are actually doing. The enquiries from the editorial team are piling up: who actually won in the end?
Admittedly, the rules are a little confusing at first glance. Here is the explanation:
This time, there were fleet races to warm up and, for the first time, time trials for the fastest 500 metres. Both are purely for show and will not be included in the classification.
After a break, three fleet races were sailed yesterday, one long one of 40 minutes, two short ones of 18 minutes each. The same is planned for today.
Five different course variants are available.
Points are awarded in each race, with first place receiving ten, second nine and so on. From eighth place onwards, everyone receives three points. At the end, the points of each team are totalled. The team with the most points is first. The results of these fleet races determine the seeding list for the match races on Friday and Saturday.
The top three finishers from the fleet races will only progress to the semi-finals of the match races. Before that, places four to nine will compete for the remaining semi-final place in a knockout system, in a format that gives the better-placed teams in the fleet races a better chance of progressing.
In the semi-finals, the third-placed team sails against the second-placed team three times and the first-placed team sails against the winner of the elimination, also three times. The two winners sail the final, also three times. The winner is the winner of the match race championship of this event, all teams again collect points according to ranking and match wins.
Finally, there will be another fleet race (Sunday). The winner of the Fleetrace Championship of this event is the first one, all of them receive points according to the known pattern. So there are two winners.
This procedure is repeated at every event.
At the end of 2012, all the points collected by each team at the individual events will be totalled. The team with the most points in the match race is the winner of the AC World Series Match Race Championship, and the winner of the AC World Series Fleetrace Championship is determined by adding up the Fleetrace points.
Finally, all of a team's points from the fleet race and match race are added together to determine the overall winner.
The AC World Series has nothing to do with the actual America's Cup. They are a showcase for the teams to present themselves to potential sponsors and at the same time a promotional event for the new America's Cup.
Lars Bolle
Chief Editor Digital
