America’s Cup: New Delay Start Rule After Spithill’s Claim of “Flying Blind”

The organizers of the Prada Cup regatta will today test a new rule that allows a America’s Cup challenger to delay the start of a race if their on-board race data system has failed.

This follows a claim by Luna Rossa’s helmsman Jimmy Spithill that his team had been “flying blind” during Sunday’s race, in which rival American Magic eventually capsized.

Race director Iain Murray said a team that believes it has not received digital data, including course limits, from race officials, could request a 15-minute delay.

The idea will be put to the test during today’s restart of the free-for-all series of the Prada Cup, which will be sailed today on course “stadium” C, with moderate southwest winds of over 12 knots at 4pm.

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British challenger INEOSTeamUK can secure a direct jump to the Prada Cup final, if they beat Luna Rossa of Italy in today’s race. Luna Rossa must win to keep the possibility of reaching the final directly.

Murray did not believe that the difficulties Luna Rossa may have had with race data last Sunday were the fault of the event’s Race Management System (RMS).

But he said he did not have the ability during the pre-start countdown to decide whether a team’s data problems were his own problem or whether they relied on data relayed by race officials.

Each boat has a Race Information Display (RID) provided by the event, to which course limits and data are sent prior to each race, and from which they receive penalty calls.

Murray said that six minutes before Sunday’s race, Luna Rossa reported that they had no data, but then no further complaints or comments were made until Spithill’s, in a press conference five days later.

The race director said that the team had sailed a previous race and part of a race abandoned on the same day with no problems, and suggested that the problem occurred when closing the data for the previous race and downloading the next one.

With the new system being tested this weekend, a team can request a 15 minute delay if data is a problem, but if the fault is found to be within the team’s own systems, the ability to look for more delays.

Murray said race engineers could remotely tell if the RID aboard a boat was working.

If the undefeated INEOSTeamUK wins Saturday’s race, it may choose not to compete with Luna Rossa on Sunday, but Murray said both teams during the week had suggested they would compete, in line with the hopes of the event organizers and the TV channels.

Spithill and British skipper Sir Ben Ainslie said Saturday that it was beneficial to have one more day of racing, but the downside was less time to prepare and develop the boats for the next stage.

After today’s race, each team will start a “ghost race” alone, in order to secure the available spot if American Magic had been in the water and competing.

Dean Barker’s “Patriot” at the helm is being repaired after Sunday’s rollover and hopes to be ready from Wednesday to compete in the Prada Cup semifinal starting next Friday.