America's Cup World Series San Diego
Championship Fleet Race: Sunday Nov 20

Fleet Race Championship Final:
One 40-minutes Fleet Race
Start schedule for 2:00 pm PT.
AC 500 Speed Trial, two runs each boat.

Fleet Race:
Underway! Spithill and Oracle4 leading, Korea and Energy fighting for second. Onto the 6th of 9 legs, it's a 29-second lead for Oracle4. Korea, ETNZ, and Energy in a tight pack behind them about 30 seconds. Oracle maintains at the next mark, Korea still second at rounding, but ETNZ gains, crosses ahead of Korea into second. Second to last leg, ETNZ has 5 seconds on Team Korea.

Oracle rounds the last mark and wins the Fleet Racing Championship Race, making a sweep for Spithill this weekend.  ETNZ 2nd, Energy 3rd, Aleph 4th by barely meters, Korea 5th, Artemis catches China on the last leg for 6th, China 7th, GreenComm8th, Oracle5 9th.

Oracle4 wins the San Diego Fleet Race Championship, to bookend their Match Racing Championship victory yesterday, and now trail Emirates by just one point in the combined 2011-12 Season standings.

Conditions:
Winds S 13 mph becoming SE 15 mph (WindFinder). Winds S 6-11 kts, rain and thunderstorm possible late afternoon (NWS).  Low tide 11:21 am, High Tide 5:07 pm.

 Photo:©2011 Guilain Grenier/Oracle Racing
ETNZ and Energy waged a fierce battle in Oracle4's wake, vying along with Korea for second place.  The Kiwis eventually claimed it, which protected a one-point season lead for them, and Energy took third.

OR5 flirting with disaster in the Speed Trial.
Photo:©2011 ACEA/Gilles Martin-Raget

Race 3 (3rd-4th):
ETNZ versus Artemis, start at 2:15 pm, early lead to ETNZ delta 12 seconds, they take the right side with better pressure.  ETNZ turns left, bad wind shift forces Artemis to follow at the last minute, ceding more time to ETNZ, 200m lead downwind.  Aggressive moves from the trailing Swedes on the last upwind, lead closing to 140m, but the Kiwis give a loose cover with the last windward gate coming up.  The boats split on the last downwind, ETNZ taking the right side, taking a calculated risk, but no room for Artemis to exploit it.  Kiwis cruising to the finish, beating Artemis to claim 3rd place.

Finals:
Energy versus Oracle4 (Spithill) in best-of-three series.  First race underway at 2:40. Early lead to Energy. Spithill find better wind on Leg 5 and reels them in, getting a left shift, tries to cross, and makes it. Dial down before the mark punishes Energy more.  18-second delta for Oracle at the top gate.  Oracle wins and takes a 1-0 lead in the Finals. Second race, Oracle does it again, this time a slight lead that they maintain throughout the race, wins the Match Race Final 2-0 over Energy!

Conditions:
Winds WSW 9 mph (WindFinder). Winds SSW 6-8 kts becoming W, morning rain should clear by 10 am (NWS).  Low tide 10:18 am, High Tide 3:50 pm, flood current for most races, maximum current predicted at 12:55 pm, slack water at 4:00 pm.

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America's Cup World Series San Diego:
Thursday - Nov 17

Match Race Championship:
Qualifying Races Today
First Race Start Scheduled for 1:05 pm
Each qualifying match today is a single 18-minute race between the competitors, pairings as follows:

Q1: Complete! Aleph beats China.

Q3: Q3 will be the second match held today, with Q2 delayed due to problems on Oracle5. Start at 1:45 pm. Aleph gets a jump at the start and round ahead of Korea at the first mark. Aleph wins again!

Q2: Start at 2:15 pm. Oracle5 into early lead. Oracle5 beats GreenComm, advances to face Aleph in Q4.

Q4: Start at 2:45 pm. Aleph leads, but Oracle5 gaining with two legs to go. Aleph wins a third time today!

Q5: Aleph takes a penalty in pre-start for late entry, manages to catch up in first beat, port-starboard situation near boundary green-flagged by umpires.  Minutes later, with Aleph flying away on a 4-knot speed differential the race was cancelled due to technical difficulties as Race Management loses ability to manage course boundaries.

Q5 Re-Rerun: Second start, Aleph fails to keep clear, gets penalized again in pre-start and is 35 seconds behind at Mark 2, wind dropping to 4 knots.  Artemis extends lead to 1:04 after first upwind.  Big pressure for the French who chose the correct left side, flying a hull with 3+ knot speed advantage to claw back 100m from Artemis midway through the fourth leg.  With one gybe less than Artemis, the French recoup another 75m by the Mark 4 rounding and capture the lead at beginning of last beat!

"Aleph likes the left!" shouts Geordie Shaver, as the top boats exchange the lead on VirtualEye.  At Mark 5, Artemis finds the two meters they need to tack ahead of the French.  Terry cheers "We're in a Match!"  Seven seconds ahead, the Swedes are first to gybe, opening the door again and leaving the French on the left side of the course.  Iain Percy guides Artemis to a nice line of breeze as they extend to finish 40 seconds ahead of the French.  "Live to fight another day," Terry Hutchinson declares, congratulating the team for a race well sailed. Artemis will race Energy on Friday in the Semi-Finals.

The loss puts an end to Aleph's outstanding performance, which notably was Pierre Pennec's first Match Racing exercise onboard an AC45, beating China, Korea, and Oracle5 (Coutts)!

 

Aleph dispatched China, Korea, and Oracle5 before nearly beating Artemis, too. Photo:©2011 ACEA/Gilles Martin-Raget

Thursday Outlook:

Conditions:
Wind WNW 10 mph, dropping to 8 mph late afternoon (WindFinder).  Wind NW 7 kts (NWS).  High Tide 12:46 pm, ebb tide during racing.

Preview:
Two teams stand out to watch in the Qualifying Match brackets.  Korea stormed from a #6 seed into the Match Race Finals in Plymouth, and by team skipper Chris Draper's own admission they have focused much more preparation on match racing than on the fleet racing that gave them a #5 seed this time.  The newest face at the helm here is Darren Bundock, stepping in for Russell Coutts on sixth-seeded Oracle5.  Yesterday, Bundock rocketed into an early lead in Seeding Race 1 and stayed there, showing a good hint of why Russell picked him.  But what does Bundock bring to the table for match racing?  Fans and competitors will be curious to find out.

Which is not to look past Aleph and China, who both notched their first fleet race wins this week, and GreenComm, who improved to a third in Race 3 yesterday.  The reward for the hot boat among the bottom five seeds is a battle against Artemis for a slot in Friday's Semi-Finals.  Everybody is getting better, and Match Racing today should provide a good gauge of progress across the line-up.
 

Darren Bundock's ACWS Match Race debut was a Q2 victory over GreenComm, but Oracle 5 lost to Aleph in Q4. Photo:©2011 Guilain Grenier/Oracle Racing

 

America's Cup World Series San Diego:
Wednesday - Nov 16

Artemis won Race 2, earned 4th seed, and will race Thursday in Qualifier 5. Photo:©2011 Chris Cameron/ETNZ

Match Race Championship starts today:
Three Seeding Fleet Races: Start time 1:05 PM PT
One Long (40-min)/Two short (18-min)
Followed by Speed Trial (Two Runs per Boat)

Race 1: Complete
 Oracle5 (Coutts), skippered by Bundock sails into the lead and stays there.  Delta 39 seconds to ETNZ in second, Energy third, with 2 legs to go. And they finish in that order!  Korea 4th, Oracle4 (Spithill) 5th, China 6th, Artemis 7th, GreenComm 8th, Aleph 9th. 

Race 2: Complete
Started at 2:10 pm.  Korea into early lead, followed by ETNZ and Energy.  Penalty before the start for Oracle5. Finish: Artemis wins! Korea 2nd, ETNZ 3rd, Oracle4 4th, Energy 5th, Aleph 6th, China 7th, Oracle5 8th, GreenComm 9th.

Race 3: Complete
Started 2:50 pm. Oracle4 was OCS. GreenComm into the early lead, Energy 2nd, Artemis 3rd.  Energy rounds top mark first, GreenComm close in second, Artemis 3rd. At the finish: Energy 1st, Oracle4 2nd, GreenComm 3rd, Artemis 4th, ETNZ 5th, Oracle5 6th, Aleph 7th, Korea 8th, China 9th.

Energy wins, and takes the top seed for Match Race Brackets! 
See results and Thursday's Qualifying Pairings

Conditions:
Winds WNW 8 mph (WindFinder). Winds E 5-10 mph, becoming N (NWS).  High Tide 11:32 am/Low tide 7:18 pm means ebb current during racing.

Watch it:
Full streaming coverage online YouTube Channel and some in-state television options, plus the webcam.

Team New Zealand didn't win a race today, but performed consistently enough to lock up the #2 Seed. Photo:©2011 Chris Cameron/ETNZ

Wednesday Outlook:
Things get more serious today after Tuesday's relatively light hearted press conference with the skippers.  Today's three fleet races serve to set up the qualifying brackets for the next three days of match racing to determine the San Diego Match Race Championship.  The top three seeds have a much easier path, but as Team Korea proved in Plymouth, seeding is not destiny.

Forecast is for lighter winds, along with some currents, which may put a little more premium on exploiting local knowledge.  The seeding races in Plymouth were topped by the familiar names or ETNZ, Artemis, and Oracle5 (Coutts), but last Sunday's exhibition fleet races saw ETNZ and Artemis battling it out just to avoid last place in the second race of the day, evidence of how quickly these races can get away from anyone.

Also of interest to watch in these races is how the new OCS rule and signaling system will promote aggressiveness about being over the line or not.

ACWS San Diego:
Saturday - Day 1

Bill Koch, 1992 Defender of the America's Cup with his America³, was the guest onboard Oracle4 with James Spithill Saturday. Photo:©2011 ACEA/Gilles Martin-Raget

Fleet Racing Today Nov 12: Three Races
First Race start scheduled for 1:05 pm PT.

Results:
Race 1: Underway in light winds. Spithill off to an early lead, with guest 1992 America's Cup winner Bill Koch onboard.  At the gate, it's still Oracle4, then Artemis, Aleph, and China.  Wind staying light, water f-l-a-t, it's Oracle5 into the lead, followed by China.  At the finish, Artemis wins, ETNZ 2nd, Oracle4 (Spithill) 3rd, Oracle5 (Coutts) 4th, China 5th, Korea 6th, Energy 7th, Aleph 8th, GreenComm 9th.

Race 2: 2:25 pm: Start Abandoned due to wind shift. Correction, despite earlier reports, racing is not abandoned for the day, but PRO will try to get another start at about 20 minutes after the hour, 3:20 pm, now 3:30 pm looks firm.  RC is determined to get the race in if possible.  Race 2 is underway!  Wind is a bit better, though rain is coming down steadily.

China wins Race 2! Oracle5 2nd, Emirates TNZ 3rd, Artemis 4th, Energy 5th, GreenComm 6th, Aleph 7th, Oracle4 (Spithill) 8th, Korea 9th.

The win for China is their first in America's Cup AC45 Fleet Racing. Their previous best finish was a third in the seeding fleet races on September 15 in Plymouth.
 See Port Cities Challenge Results

Also: See Day 1 Team Statements

Racing Resumes tomorrow, scheduled for 1:05 pm PT.

Artemis finding some air on Day 1. Click image to enlarge and read more.  Photo:©2011 ACEA/Gilles Martin-Raget
 

Observations from Day One of the America’s Cup World Series in San Diego, from Diane Swintal:

Emirates Team New Zealand and Artemis Racing finished the day equal on points. However, ETNZ was given the lead since they had finished higher than Artemis in the second race.

San Diego has been paying attention to what works and, despite a Day One weather outlook that kept all but the hardiest of sailing junkies at home, put together a race village layout that was simple and easy for spectators.  Team bases are concentrated mostly on the Navy Pier, with the media center and viewing areas on the adjacent Broadway Pier.  Rather than having the boats hidden behind shrouds and ornate compounds, the AC45s are moored between the two piers, with the public able to watch the boats set up and head out to the race course which is right in front of both piers.  And if you’re on the USS Midway, high above the waterline, you have the best seat in the house.  Though on the cold and rainy first day, the best seat in the house might very well have been a window seat at the (warm, dry, and well lubricated) Fish House.

The crowd:
Interestingly, the ACEA has no plans to add bleachers to the end of Broadway Pier, preferring to maintain the “open space” concept.  Fine in theory -- but trying to catch the action behind a five-deep crowd isn't so easy in practice.

The art of racing in the rain, viewed from the Broadway Pier on Day 1 of the America's Cup World Series San Diego. Photo:©2011 ACEA/Gilles Martin-Raget

The race course:
Reaching legs, discarded for the ACC and Version 5 Cup races, and multiple marks are great for the AC45s, which accelerate off a dime -- though a challenge for spectators or announcers, since keeping track of where the boats have been and where they are going (is this Lap Two, or Lap Three???) reads sort of like a Scandia Race Week course guide.

Passing lanes:
The AC45s have passing capabilities the monohull Cup boats could only dream of.  Case in point: Artemis Racing and Emirates Team New Zealand had nightmare starts in the first race on Saturday, well behind for much of the early part of the race -- only to find themselves on the correct end of wind shifts and maneuvers that put them into first and second place, respectively.  If they had been as far out of contention in the Version 5 boat as they were on Saturday, the television coverage would have stopped showing them.

The announcers:
Cup veterans Peter Isler and Annie Gardner ably handled the commentary for everyone watching from the pier areas.  Isler and Gardner delivered the race analysis with a good mix of information for the newbie and insight for the seasoned Cup viewer. 

Next up:
On Sunday morning, Mike Martin, the Director of Umpiring and Rules Administration for the America’s Cup Regatta Management, will give us the 411 on the new illumination array on the back of the boats dubbed the "Christmas Tree” for its flashing red and green lights.  Y Flags are so last decade.

Read more about the Christmas Tree in AC45 Tech

Sweden's Artemis draws a crowd to the bow of the USS Midway during training on Friday.
 Photo:©2011 ACEA/Gilles Martin-Raget

Saturday Outlook:
The America's Cup World Series in San Diego opens this weekend with the "Port Cities Challenge", consisting of three fleet races each day Saturday and Sunday.  Five of the nine teams will be representing local California towns as a means of drawing residents in to root for the crews.  Unlike the first two ACWS events, the first two days of fleet racing will not be shown live on TV or the internet, and coverage will instead begin with the Match Racing Championship begins on Wednesday.

Weather:
 Clearing rain with winds becoming SSE to SSW 6-11 knots by race start, intermittent rain (Official site).  Winds S, 170 degrees at 9 mph, 80% chance of rain (Weather Underground).  Winds SE 17 Knots (Windfinder).  Winds S 10-15 mph, gusting to 20, 90% chance of rain with possible thunderstorms late afternoon (NOAA).  Low Tide at 4:07pm, currents will be near maximum ebb around race time.  A high surf advisory is also issued for beaches in the area, but this should not have a major impact inside the harbor.

Preview:
 With two regattas under their belts, some of the experience and preparation factors should begin to settle out among the teams.  Even the newer crews have had a chance to get used to the wingsail and all teams are adapting to the tactics demanded of the unconventional race courses, rules changes, and new technologies of the ACWS.  This is a chance to sail a bit more smoothly, focus on execution, and continue learning in anticipation of launching the big AC72 yachts next year.

Event organizers will also be hoping to show off how the new racing program works both as sport and spectacle close-in to a major city, and demonstrate that the AC45 catamarans can provide exciting racing here, dispelling perceptions of light conditions and limited excitement that linger in some minds from the 1992 and 1995 America's Cup Defenses.  The RC44 regatta in the same waters last March was a good warm-up, and the reception the ACWS receives in San Diego should be just a little preview of what's to come in San Francisco less than 20 months from now.
 

Day 1 Morning Report from Diane Swintal at the ACWS:

Good morning from a rainy (and rather chilly) San Diego!

For those of you wondering about the fact that Southern California appears to actually have weather, remember that following the lyric “It never rains in California” come the words “It pours, man, it pours….” With 20 minutes until the warning gun, Point Loma is barely visible as a steady rain falls.

Click image to view webcam. Image:© 2011 ACEA

Regatta Director Iain Murray will run three races today and again tomorrow in the Port Cities Challenge -- the first being a longer race of three laps over a race course of approximately one mile, and two shorter races that most likely will be two laps on a course anywhere from .5 to 1.5 mile, depending on the breeze.

As Murray noted, it’s an “unusual” breeze in San Diego today, due to the direction the low pressure is traveling.  Rain and wind will be on the front of each system as it moves through, with the wind direction predicted to be from the east -- meaning the top mark will sit underneath the public viewing area on the Broadway Pier.

Like the Congressional Cup in Long Beach, which parks the start line in front of the Belmont Pier, prompting teams to all but use the pier pylons as picks, John Craig,  the Principal Race Officer (PRO), hopes to bring the action as close to the spectators as possible -- possibly alarmingly close.

“We will be sailing to a boundary as close as John can physically do it,” said Murray.  “His goal is to set it two feet off the end of the Broadway Pier.  It creates problems for us electronically if the mark is within six lengths of the boundary, so we have to make sure we can keep the mark outside that distance.  The start will be just off the Midway."  The historic aircraft carrier will be a prime viewing spot, and on the pier the lucky front-row crowd will have a great view, but less so for those in back with no bleachers are set up, at least not yet.

“The breeze will fluctuate a great deal as it comes through the city, so a lot of fortunes will change approaching the top mark, depending on how the gusts go through the buildings.  It will require the best sailors in the world to be on their best to make the most of today.”