MATCHRACE.CHMatch Race Academy

Trap at the finishing line

2008-02-08T09:14:00.003-08:00

Since 2 years I have seen this situations seveeral times, they evolve very quickly and most of the time the umpire decission are different.
As sailor I can gain or lose the match within seconds wich is fine but I do belive that small details have a big impact. What do you think about?

Case 1: Yellow with outstanding penalty before finishing line. Yellow has to avoid collision right after both boats have crossed the finishing line. Yellow Y flaged at position 4.

What is the umpire's desicion and who wins the race?

Case 2: Yellow with outstanding penalty before finishing line. Yellow has to avoid collision before both boats have crossed the finishing line. Yellow Y flaged at position 4. Yellow crosses the line first.

What is the umpire's desicion and who wins the race?

Case 3: Yellow with outstanding penalty before finishing line. Yellow has to avoid collision before both boats have crossed the finishing line. Yellow Y flaged at position 4. Blue crosses the line first.

What is the umpire's desicion and who wins the race?

Starbord boat tacking

2008-02-08T09:14:00.001-08:00

Here a situation that happens very often. Yellow boat wants to keep the right side but blue is able to cross behind, one possibility for yellow is to tack in front of blue, but...Blue Y flag at position 5. What ist the umpires decision if:

A) At position 4 the boats are on a collision course
B) There is no collision course at position 4 (blue crosses behind) but blue luffs to a collision course while yellow is tacking

Trap at the finishing line 2

2008-02-08T09:13:00.003-08:00

Here two new cases at the finishing line:

Case 4: As Yellow at position 2 (no overlap) I try to slow down as much as I can. If B passes to windward I have the opportunity tu luff.

Is it an option for Blue to overlap leeward, what are the risks? In this case, who wins the match?

Case 6: This one is much at one time, and probably cauzsing some penalties: My Questions:

a) Y clear ahead at the Zone, does Y have the right to ask for room to tack at the boat (position 3)?

b) Did Y his/a penalty (position 5)?

c) Does B have the right to go inside at position 5 (I assume yes according to the previous answers)?

Black flag in Prestart at the MR Europeans in Sopot

2008-02-08T09:13:00.001-08:00

Description of incident:

During pre-start manuevers Blue on port did not keep clear of Yellow on starboard. There was a contact resulting in cutting one of two stern lines holding the cameraman at the stern of Yellow. There was Y flag.

Umpires penalized Blue for breaking rule 10. Few seconds later it turned out that cameraman standing on Yellow’s stern is not able to hold on in his previous position and have to get on board.

Umpires initiated black flag penalty on Blue due to safety issues claiming that Yellow was not able to continue racing.

Note: Cameramen were present at all boats standing at the stern and being supported by two additional lines.

Questions:

What should the call be?

Was the action by umpires appropriate in terms of rule C8.3?

Can you consider cameraman as the normal part of equipment?

Can you consider safety issues as the reason to initiate black flag penalty?

1 Penalize Blue, however;

(a) There need not have been contact with the boat; if Yellow had to take avoiding action could be sufficient.

(b) If the contact was only with the cameraman or part of his equipment (support rope- camera etc) then it would be a green and white flag.

A cameraman and any equipment he carries is not part of the boat (Call MR 21) another example would be contact with an observer

2 No. The situation described does not fit any of the criteria contained in C8.3, (a), (B) or (c).

3 No (call MR 21)

4 Yes - but not for this reason.

A better course of action in this case would be for the umpires to request the race be abandoned, which a race officer should do in these circumstances. (This is what the umpires should do if the ropes simply broke without there being any contact.)

Alternatively the umpires could do nothing and Yellow should request redress. The PC would then make an appropriate decision. (Which in this case would probably be a re-sail).

Leebow tack in the Prestart

2008-02-08T09:12:00.001-08:00

This is one of the nenalties we gave during the semifinal at the Gstaad Ski Yacting this year.
By loking at the picture it's quite a simple case:
The reason for the penalty yellow got at position 4 is not particular interesting. Rule 13 applies for the yellow boat and even if the yellow boat had completed his tack there is still rule 15 who requires yellow to give the red boat room to keep clear as yellow become right of way boat by it's own action.

From a tactical point of view it's more interesting discussing alternatives of yellow.

Let's consider the following facts:
Yellow is on port and on collision course as red has a higher speed the yellow.

Option 1:
Yellow tacks faster in order to gain the right of way position as leeward boat rule 11. If the red boat is now not able to slow down his speed the red boat will become clear ahead of yellow. In this case yellow will fully control red and my push him further to the left side and keeps control of the right side of the starting line.

Option 2:
Instead of tacking, yellow may start to bear away hardly, ease the main and keeps the pressure on the gib, resulting during a short moment in a collision course but keeps bearing away and therefore she is keeping clear of red.
In this case red can not start to alter his course towards yellow and have to keep sailing his course.
The result will be yellow cross astern of red, gains the right side of the prestart area and is in control of red.

What do you think about this 2 options?

Why a Match Race Academy

2008-02-08T09:11:00.001-08:00

Match Race Academy: Why a Match Race Academy

Lugano Match Cup 2007 and IU Seminar

2007-01-06T21:24:00.000-08:00

After the inaugural edition of last year the Circolo Velico Lago di Lugano is organizing also in the second edition of the Lugano match cup.
This year the event will be over two weekends with a Gr. 4 match Race for Swiss match racing Teams and a Grade 3 event open also for teams from other nationalities. During the Gr. 3 event ISAF in collaboration with Swiss Sailing will also organize a IU Seminar open to umpires who intent to participate in an IU seminar.

Program
-10 – 11 March 2007 Act I
8 Team with 4 Streamline, top 4 team will qualify for the Gr. 3

-16 – 18 March 2007 Act II
10 Team with 6 Streamline

-14 – 18 March ISAF International Umpire Seminar

Registration

Act I and Act II, please send an email to: peter.schmidle@matchrace.ch

IU Seminar, please send an email to: juergkaufmann@matchrace.ch

Read more from the 2006 Lugano Match Cup

Download Notice of Race Act I

Download Notice of Race Act II

Download Application for IU Seminar

BMW ORACLE Racing wins the petit final in the jury room

2006-07-02T05:00:00.000-07:00

BMW ORACLE Racing team won its match on the water over Luna Rossa on Saturday afternoon and followed that up with victory in the Jury room on Saturday night.

TSS Chart (c) www.matchrace.ch

Based on the official notes of the jury (see below) this is how the accident could happened on the water, however the chart is only our best guess as we haven't seen the incident on the water.

During the last ACT in the match between BMW Oracle (BMWO) and Luna Rossa (LR) occurred a collision
BMWO intends to dip LR at ca 70% up to the weather mark, (see position 1-5) and therefore gaining the right side and an advantage at the windward mark. LR takes shortly before the crossing to port (pos. 5-6) we assume to defend the right side of the course. The contact was caused by stern of LR coming up quickly (pos 6) in accordance to the umpires. BMWO despite his hard luff had no chance to avoid the collision.
The umpire Chris Simon expected a dial down from LR which could avoid the collision, but not a tack .
The umpires penalized LR for R 13.1 (tacking boat shall keep clear see LR pos. 5-6)
Normally an umpire decisions is final, but in an incident with damage the rules allow to protest with a red flag. This open the chance to ask for redress during a hearing, what both teams did.
The jury penalize LR under rule 14 (avoiding contact) and BMWO was awarded the redress for the next match as they had no second boat measurement compliant.
Therefore BMWO get’s his second point and wins the petite final finishing 3rd in the ACT 12.

Peter Islers view from http://www.bymnews.com/
BMW ORACLE Racing, on the collision between USA 87 and ITA 86: We did a number of tacks into the centre of the course and back out with Luna Rossa always holding the starboard hand advantage. In the final one, the gap had closed, our duck was bigger and we were in the dip, going behind them or expecting them to do a normal lee bow. Instead, James [Spithill] waited too late and turned right in front of us, the stern swung into us and smacked into our bowsprit. The umpires ruled that Luna Rossa had tacked too close. Red flags went up on both boats which means it will go to protest. The umpires' verdict is telling, but it still doesn't guarantee that we're 100 percent home and free.

BMW ORACLE Racing, on dipping a starboard tack boat: It was a starboard to port lee bow. The ability for starboard tack boats to come in and lee bow, effectively a dipping port tack boat, has become a more important manoeuvre in the game. The problem is that you have to start your turn sooner because you have a port boat that is dipping you and he's a bit of a moving target. He's allowed to move because he's trying to avoid you.

Jury view from: www.americascup.com
After listening to evidence from Italian skipper Francesco de Angelis and BMW ORACLE Racing skipper and helmsman Chris Dickson, along with the Umpires on the race course, the Jury gave a verbal finding:

- The two boats were on a collision course;
- At approximately five boat lengths of separation, USA 87 bore away to pass behind ITA 86;
- At approximately 1.5 boat lengths of separation, ITA 86 luffed up and went into a tack;
- USA 87 attempted to bear away further but then luffed up sharply;
- There was a collision;
- It was not reasonably possible for USA 87 to avoid a collision;
- Luna Rossa luffed and tacked in a position where contact between the boats was extremely likely;
- Luna Rossa broke Rule 14 (avoiding contact);
- BMW ORACLE Racing is eligible for redress;
- Both boats are damaged too badly to sail on Sunday;
- BMW ORACLE Racing is awarded one point as redress as they are unable to race through no fault of their own.

Usefull Race Management Files

2006-06-16T08:38:00.000-07:00

During the past years we collected a few very helpful files used to organize match races.
Some are official ISAF Forms some are been developped by race officials over the years.

From time to time we will update this post and ad more information.

Latest update: 19.1.06

From ISAF

Notice of race
http://www.sailing.org/matchrace/mrnofr.doc

Sailing instructions
http://www.sailing.org/matchrace/mrssi.doc

Please make sure that you download the new version for every event as they are updated from time to time

Grading form and
http://www.sailing.org/matchrace/gradingform.doc

Grading criteria
http://www.sailing.org/default.asp?ID=j/vFsA?k&MenuID=j0qgGbk4971qOqF?

Umpire Invitation letter
http://www.matchrace.ch/download/files/umpireinvitletter.doc

Umpire assignments during an event
http://www.matchrace.ch/download/files/umpireorganization.xls

IU Report
http://www.sailing.org/raceofficials/iureportform2005.doc

Price money scale
http://www.sailing.org/matchrace/ISAFPrizemoney.doc

From Mario Mino ITA

Paring List
http://www.matchrace.ch/download/files/pairingmatchrace.zip

From other sources

Technical Event Planing
http://www.matchrace.ch/download/files/mrplaning.xls

Registration forms
http://www.matchrace.ch/download/files/registration.xls

Take a tour on a IACC Yacht

2006-04-13T04:39:00.000-07:00

Powered By Qumana

Match Race Training in Lugano

2006-03-20T06:28:00.000-08:00

The two weekend match race training camp organized by the Circolo Velico lago di Lugano concluded today with the inaugural Lugano Match Cup, 5 Teams from Switzerland and Italy competed in the first Swiss match race of the season.
A double round robin and a highly intense final between team De Micheli SUI and team Mazzoni ITA where sailed this weekend.
The matches where sailed on the Streamline, 22 feet boats who will be used for the UBS Alinghi Swiss Tour.

Final Results:

1: Sacha De Micheli SUI
2: Fabio Mazzoni ITA
3: Matteo Minetti SUI
4: Jan Van de Kruck SUI
5: Luca Zanardi SUI

The Lugano Match Cup was the first Act of this event, others will follow during the season to give the teams chances to improve there skills for the UBS Alinghi Swiss Tour and prepare them for the match race circuit.
A special thank together with all the volunteers goes to the Zürcher Yacht Club who provied 2 of the 4 boats for this training.

Logo for the Match Race Academy

2006-02-21T09:56:00.000-08:00

Here is our Match Race Academy logo. A special thank goes to the designer Gregor from Noise AG.

Virtual Match Race Training in Zuerich

2006-01-25T00:31:00.000-08:00

Imagine outside it’s below zero you have warm hands and feets and you are sailing an entire round robin with IACC yachts, the matches are umpired, you have a warm cup of coffee close to your joystick and the Yankee flag.
There are over 6 personal computers connected to a wireless network and a full round robin is ongoing.
It’s quite impressive to see how the match race scene has developed in the past years. Just a few years ago no one would have bet that w will sail match races in Zurich in January.
Ok the real boats are still stowed away however inside the clubhouse of the Zurich Yacht Club every Tuesday evening this guys are sailing there complete round robin.
From time to time interesting matches go on the big screen with plenty of comments and cheering from the other participants.
Al the matches are stored on a server and can be reloaded after completion and analyzed step by step. Excellent approach to talk about the calls and situations.

At the moment they are working with Virtual Skipper 3 in the attachment you will find information on how to download the sailed matches from the internet.

The events are organized by Marcel Guettinger in cooperation with the Zürich Yacht Club, well done Marcel, I’m really curios to see how many boats/PC will be on the table at the end of the virtual season.

Jürg

http://www.matchrace.ch/Download/Files/virtualinfos.doc

Match Race Virus alert in Athens

2006-01-09T12:15:00.000-08:00

Back at home after a intensive training weekend in Athens.

I’m sure we all could learn from each other. Personally I was strongly impressed about the cohesive spirit of all the involved sailors, independent from there sailing career.

Due to not really favorable weather conditions, during the first 2 days we had the chance to analyze together many typical match race situations and strategies that happen during the pre start and on the on the course.

Was very happy that Luca Babini flew down to Greece to join us who gave on top of his expirience a special spirit specially during the theorie sessions.

Finally the long expected the strong wind from north wind came in for the last 2 days and we could run a double round robin on Saturday and the sailors could apply many of the situations discussed previously.

Sunday the north wind became even stronger and with 15-20 knots we sailed the finals and some additional training match.

2:0 Sofia Bekatorou - Zois Tsouropanos

2:0 Thodoris Tsoulfas - Simon Kabouridis

The results of the first Gr. 5 Athens Mecca Match Race are:

Skippers Final Position

1. Sofia Bekatorou

2. Zois Tsouropanos

3. Thodoris Tsoulfas

4. Simon Kabouridis

Beside Sofia Bekatorou also many other successful Greek sailors who normally sail in the Olympic classes enjoyed the match racing such as Katerina Giakomidou Yngling and Andreas Kosmatopoulus 470.

I’m sure that beside the Dream Race other match race events will be organized in Athens, the infrastructure is available, many motivated sailors and superb wind conditions.

A special thank also goes to Dimitris Gerontaris our race officer the 2 Greek judges (Tsantilis, Skylitshis) and Georgious from the Mecca Bar.

Have a nice week

Jürg

First impression from the match race clinic in Athens from the Greek Teams

2006-01-06T03:16:00.000-08:00

It's the first time that Greek sailing MR teams decide to organise a clinic to improve the MR level in Greece and attract more people to sail having fun and learning tactical situations at the same time.

After 2005 Dream Race where sailors left with the best feedback from the umpires where Juerg Kaufmann was included they decided reinviting him and also adding the experienced Luca Babini to get all together and train for 4 days in Athens.

4 teams are attendindg the seminar( Karageorgiou, Tsoulfas, Venetsianos, Bekatorou) and 2 international judges from Greece( Tsantilis, Skylitshis).The theoretical part is held in Yacht Club of Greece and the the sailing sessions are run by the instructions of Dimitris Gerontaris.

The intention of the people participating is to make similar events in the future and prepare the sailors for Dream Race 2006 and similar MR events like Swedish Match and Nations Cup.

Greetings from Athens,

Sofia Bekatorou

Match Race Introduction

2005-12-27T13:02:00.000-08:00

Match racing is beautiful to watch because of its simplicity. Two boats of equal performance with the simple goal of beating the other. But the game is incredibly complex. With the growing popularity of match racing and intense competition of the international match racing circuit, the game has changed significantly as teams juggle to stay on top..... With so much on the line, a world-class team cannot afford to ignore the importance of match race skills in their overall game plan. Small mistakes that may not have an effect in a fleet race can be the deciding factor in a match race. It requires competence in many aspects of sailing, including boat speed, boat handling, knowledge of the rules and solid aggressive tactics.

THE RACE
The race course is a simple windward-leeward course with a combined start/finish line at the end. The course will have two laps, and the length of the course is adjusted so that a race will take approximately 15 minutes.

PRE START SEQUENCE
The aggressive tactics and split second timing of competitors is best seen during the starting sequence. The more experienced match racers will use the start to try and draw a foul on their opponent. When the 4-minute gun is fired, both boats are allowed to enter the starting line from their assigned ends. Unless one competitor has selected the “runaway” strategy, the first confrontation will have the boats steaming at each other at speed as they reach down the line. During the four minutes before the start their is no “Proper Course”. Generally the first confrontation sees the port tack boat pass to windward of the starboard tack boat for two reasons – it is safer and establish circling in clockwise protection. Skippers that are successful at circling can get on the tail of their opponents and can push them away from the line. The ultimate goal of the pre start battle is to pin your opponent in a position that will allow you to start with a one or two boat length lead, directly in front of your enemy.

WHO WON THE START?
Many observers assess the winner of the start by the boat which crosses the line first. But that is often erroneous, many factors, including boat speed at the start, favoured end of the line, and which side of the course the first wind shift, or puff of wind, determine the actual winner of the start. The trailing boat at the start has the option of minimising loss of the beat (by staying in close contact and not splitting tacks with the enemy) therefore holding a chance to tack downwind, or to initiate a tacking duel. The tactician makes their decision on the distance his boat is behind, the type of course (i.e. if the downwind legs are not perfectly square) and the enemies expertise in speed is important for viewers and sailors alike to ascertain which boat is sailing faster upwind on the open course. It is very difficult to tell which boat is gaining if your point of reference is moving. Not until the boats cross tacks can you effectively determine the margin.

UPWIND TACTICS
In light winds, finesse at the helm, as well as, careful sailed trim are premium commodities. When behind, some sailors may try and initiate a tacking duel as a means of closing the gap. The goal is to prevent the leader from getting into a phase. As long as a trailing boat is out of phase, the bad air from the leaders sails will not reach the trailing boats sail plan. Another way for the trailing boat to get past the leader is by attacking from a safe leeward position. Say the trailing boat is on the starboard tack, to leeward of the lead boat, and the wind shifts to the left 20 degrees. Both boats will be headed and will have to head off to accelerate back to target boat speed. When the boats turn, the leeward boat will gain distance on the windward boat and will achieve a safe leeward position, meaning the leeward boat now has clear wind. By sailing well, the leeward boat can squeeze closer to the windward boat, until the windward boat gets closed up with bad air and is forced to tack away. Now, the once trailing boat can tack of port and is in a position to overtake the once leading boat. In matching racing, the trailing boat theoretically has the advantage on the downward legs because it can attack the wind of the lead boat. But that is only true if the trailing boat is close enough to affect the wind of the other boat (within 3-4 lengths) or the run is fairly square to the wind allowing for some tactical manoeuvring to take place. Jybing duels ensue as the leader tries to keep clear wind while staying in the vicinity of his/her competitor so as not to miss out on any favourable puffs.

WAITING FOR THE JYBE
Any time a boat makes a manoeuvre it loses previous momentum that can take time to regain. In light airs the time differential can be marked. This is a concern at mark rounding’s where a turn of more than 180 degrees may be made. A tack in the final few boat lengths before the top mark can be costly, slowing a boat as it goes into a turn. A jybe set can cause further slowing. All this is important to watch as big gains can be made at the corners. Straight-line speed and sailing angle are the two important factors when sailing downwind. Crews will sacrifice boat speed to sail lower angle to the wind – a trade off. Differences in VMG (velocity made good toward the mark) between the two boats may be due to an inherent speed advantage of different target boat speeds that are reflected in different sailing angles.

BATTLING FOR AN OVERLAP
As the boats approach the bottom mark there will be a battle for the inside overlap if they are close. (The racing rules allow the boat in between the mark and the competitor room to round). Because they are converging on one point the lead boat is bound to suffer some dirty wind from its competitor. A well-trained crew can be worth its weight in gold in these situations. The jib must be hoisted and the spinnaker lowered under pressure. Watch for the trailing boat to take advantage of any mistakes by he lead boat at this point. If the boats are more than two boat lengths apart, maintaining speed and momentum as well as clean sail handling are primary concerns. A boat approaching the mark on port jybe will have a more difficult rounding from a sail-handling standpoint than the boat that approaches on starboard jybe. The leeward mark rounding is a good opportunity for the trailing boat to cut its enemy’s lead.

THE FINAL RUN
If the two boats are still close, the final run to the finish has the potential for more exciting action. Tacticians will have a tough job trying to select the favoured end of the finishing line and that a single calls may decide the race if it is close. As on any run, the boat on the other’s left side possesses the starboard tack advantage, but here the goal is to have your bow ahead of your competitor. After all, the famous line that has stuck with the America’s Cup for more than 150 years still applies; there is no second.

Why a Match Race Academy

2005-12-27T12:40:00.000-08:00

"I Never Thought of That Before"

One of the aims of matchrace.ch is to provide a wide range of people with match racing knowledge.
In Switzerland, when the Alinghi wave started, we had, just a few persons with match race knowledge.
Sailing or judging a fleet race is different from sailing or umpiring a match race, today we are still in the progress to build up this knowledge. Personally I’m a strong believer that within a country the roles, sailors and umpires should grow together in order to build up a solid base for the future of this sport.
Opportunities to practice this attractive sport together with experienced persons for sailors, umpires even for race officers are more than needed.
During my free time, sometimes I play squash. In my opinion, sailing a match and squash have a lot in common.
The stronger player can make the life of his opponent really hard by forcing his opponent to run from one to the other corner. The stronger player would not give the chance to make a point or understand the tactics to his competitor.

When this sport seemed to start in Switzerland, I and had the chance to talk with one of the masters of this game, Russell Coutts. Despite my rules knowledge as IJ, I felt like an elephant walking around in a porcelain shop listening to him.

So the same day I went home and I started to read all the rules again as well as the call book.
Unfortunately there was nobody to go to and talk to understand this game.
In the mean time Marianne Middlethon was writing the umpire manual wich was very helpfull. Eric Monnin also committed to start with match racing so we spend many evening talking about situations, and we still do this today, after an event we discuss the situations we came across.
It took my quite a lot of events before being able to anticipate moves of the skippers in different situations and some time when situations evolve very fast it still remains a challenge.

How can you gain the basic knowledge of the game? You can read and study the rules as much as you want but it will be a long way to find out these typical scenarios and tactics.

Last spring I saw by chance a little book called Match Race Introduction written by John Cutler, today he is sailing in the aftergard of the Spanish AC Team and Henry Mennin member of the AC Jury.
This is what I was looking for at the beginning, a source who explains match race tactics, situations and help to understand the game.

Today I am still eager to learn by participating in events, and running match race trainings together with sailors. During these diverse occasions I found it very helpful to share thoughts and ideas with both sailors and umpires.

Last year we organized a few match race trainings in Lugano, Geneva, Zurich and one in Bahrain. This year the first training was held in Greece Athens others will follow soon.

With the start of the season we will begin to describe interesting situations we come across during the races. The descriptions will be posted under the page Match Race Academy and they should be considered as a base for discussion and by no mean we intend to question any rules or replace the call book.

We divided the page Match Race Academy in to 3 sections which aim to represent the lifecycle we are living in:

Preparation: From the price given until the next warning signal.

Pre Start: Experiences and call's during the pre start period.

On the course: Experiences and call's after the start until the price given.

To describe the situations we will use the TSS software which can can deliver to you for 65 Euro, please send an email to editor@matchrace.ch and we will be happy to help you.

If you have an interesting situation on the water you would like to talk about, please send us an email to editor@matchrace.ch and we would be pleased to use it as a base for discussion.

Best regards

Jürg