The 34th America's Cup was a series of yacht races held in San Francisco Bay in September 2013. The series was contested between the defender Oracle Team USA team, representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club, and the challenger Emirates Team New Zealand, representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.
The 2013 Cup saw the format changed from previous iterations to a best of 17, making it the longest America's Cup event by both number of days and number of races. Team New Zealand won the right to challenge for the Cup by previously winning the 2013 Louis Vuitton Cup. The challengers initially built an 8-1 lead, before Oracle Team USA won 8 consecutive races and successfully defended the title. As a result, the Cup became the first since the 1983 America's Cup to feature both teams in a match point situation.
Background The Golden Gate Yacht Club defeated Société Nautique de Genève in the 2010 America's Cup to become the Defenders of the 2013 America's Cup. The first Challenger of Record for the 34th Cup was Club Nautico di Roma, and a joint press conference was held on May 6, 2010, to plan for the event.new vision revealed 34th America’s Cup, 6 May 2010 The planning process was to include a definition of new rules and an independent management team.
Protocol The Protocol for the 34th America's Cup was published on September 13, 2010.
Boats Two new classes of boat were announced. AC72 wing-sail foiling catamarans are being used for the America's Cup races and the AC45 class, a scaled-down one-design version of the AC72, was used for the preliminary training and racing until boats built to the AC72 rules became available. The amended AC72 Class Rule version 1.1 was published on February 22, 2011.
The AC72 can reach speeds averaging about with peaks over , as much as twice the actual wind speed. This was a significant increase over previous Americas's Cup Class (ACC) boats, which only reached speeds of .
America's Cup World Series
In an effort to increase global awareness and attract sponsors for the teams, an America's Cup World Series was held over the 2011–12 and 2012–13 seasons. The winner of each annual series was declared the America's Cup World Series Champion for that season. There were three regattas in 2011, five in 2012, and two in 2013. Each regatta lasted for one week and had approximately six days of racing, including official practice. Each AC World Series regatta was a combination of match and fleet racing. AC45 one-design catamarans were used for each World Series regatta.
Cost reduction The 2013 protocol included measures to reduce competition costs in an effort to attract more challengers. These included the introduction of no-sail periods to limit on-water training, as well as limits to the amount of equipment (including boats) which teams could field. Boats were not allowed to be launched prior to July 1, 2012, and could only be sailed for limited windows in the run-up to the Cup.Exceprt from the rules: 29.2 AC72 Yacht Launch and Sailing Limits (a) Each Competitor may build, acquire or otherwise obtain a maximum of two new AC72 Yachts. (b) Competitors shall not Launch their first AC72 Yacht before 1 July 2012. (c) During the period 1 July 2012 to 31 January 2013 (“the First AC72 Sailing Period”), a Competitor may sail their AC72 Yacht for a maximum of 30 days. (d) Competitors shall not launch their second AC72 Yacht before 1 February 2013. (e) During the period 1 February 2013 to 1 May 2013, Competitors may sail their AC72 Yachts for a maximum of 45 days per AC72 Yacht. Permitted sailing days may not be transferred between AC72 yachts. (f) From 1 May 2013 there shall be no restrictions on the number of days AC72 Yachts may be sailed. [subsections (g) and (h) not reproduced here] Crew sizes were also limited to 11 sailors. However, the cost of a competitive challenge remained high, with estimates placing it in excess of US$100 million.
Youth America's Cup Alongside the initial world series races, the AC45 class boats were used in the nationality-based 'Youth America's Cup', allowing younger sailors to familiarise themselves with the technology used before moving to the larger AC72. The YAC began in 2013, when both first and second places were taken by New Zealand entries.Waikato Times 16/9/ 2013 The winning team included Peter Burling, Blair Tuke, Jono Spurdle, Sam Meech, Andy Maloney, Jason Saunders and Guy Endean.
Venue Reliable wind and weather patterns were a key consideration in deciding a host city, in order to allow guaranteed racing in line with pre-published television schedules and reduce the risk of the postponements which had caused issues at the 2010 event. Cities including San Francisco, San Diego, NewportRI emissary has high hopes for America's Cup MercuryNews.com, 22 February 2010 and Long Beach were considered earlier as possible venues for this event. On July 8, 2010, Oracle Team USA announced that San Francisco was "the only city in the USA under consideration to host the 34th America's Cup" match.America's Cup | Latest News At the time, KGO-TV and Gazzetta dello Sport, an Italian sports newspaper, reported that Rome-Fiumicino, Italy was challenging San Francisco to host the event. In early December 2010, BMW Oracle Racing became concerned that a full and final agreement with San Francisco would not be completed in time to announce the host by the end of the year, warning the city that they were at risk of losing the hosting rights and reopening negotiations with Newport as a potential alternative venue for the cup. However, on December 31 San Francisco was officially awarded the right to host the 2013 America's Cup.
Teams
Initially, fourteen yacht clubs submitted notices of entry within the deadline. Of these, two were declined and ten withdrew. Club Nautico di Roma was originally named as the Challenger of Record, but after their team Mascalzone Latino withdrew the Challenger of Record became the Royal Swedish Yacht Club, sponsoring Artemis Racing. Other notable teams that withdrew included former Cup holder Alinghi and the Energy Team from Yacht Club de France.
On August 2, 2012, the America's Cup Event Authority announced that four challenging teams would compete for the right to challenge Oracle Team USA, representing the defending Golden Gate Yacht Club. These teams were Artemis Racing (the Challenger of Record) representing the Royal Swedish Yacht Club, Emirates Team New Zealand representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, Luna Rossa Challenge representing Circolo della Vela Sicilia and the White Tiger Challenge representing Sail Korea Yacht Club. Luna Rossa, a late entry, formed a partnership with Team New Zealand where they would share design and testing information. Following Sail Korea's withdrawal in March 2013, the number of challengers dropped to three.
Defending club Golden Gate Yacht ClubOracle Team USAChallenging clubs Kungliga Svenska SegelsällskapetArtemis Racing Royal New Zealand Yacht SquadronEmirates Team New Zealand Circolo della Vela SiciliaLuna Rossa Challenge
Course and rules The course for the 34th America's Cup was designed to take advantage of the San Francisco Bay and bring racing within easy viewing of the shore for the first time. The starting area was furthest away from the shore, close to the Golden Gate Bridge. The boats were only allowed to enter the starting box two minutes before the usage of the starting gun, with the boat entering on port tack allowed to enter ten seconds before the starboard tack boat in order to reduce the risk of a collision at speed in the starting area. Alcatraz Island was a unique part of the racecourse for this event. For the first week of the event, San Francisco Bay experienced flood tides during the America's Cup races. As water flowed into the bay, there was a cone close to the Island where the incoming tide was noticeably less than the rest of the racecourse. On the upwind leg, when boats had to sail against the flood tide, tactical use of this cone was crucial.
After the starting gun signalled the start, the first leg was a short reach of around towards the shore. After rounding the reach mark, the boats travelled downwind to the leeward gate. This second leg was around in length. At the bottom of the course, the leeward gate had two different marks. Rounding either mark completed the leg. The third leg stretched around from the leeward gate to the windward gate. This upwind leg was the longest leg timewise, even though the AC72s are able to sail upwind close to twice the speed of the wind against them. The windward gate also had two separate marks, with the skippers able to choose either to complete the leg. On the fourth and final downwind leg, the boats aimed for the leeward mark that is closer to the shore. Rounding this mark put them on a reach sprint to the finish. The fifth leg was around in length. The finish line was right in front of America's Cup Park, at Piers 27/29.
The length of the course varied, but was around and generally took about 25 minutes to complete. During the 2013 Louis Vuitton Cup on the same course, some races were raced with an extra lap around the leeward and windward gates. This seven leg course was around and took approximately 45 minutes to sail.
The racecourse was delineated by a boundary, exceeding which would cause a penalty to be incurred. The first boat which reached within the three boat lengths of a mark would be given right of way unless when there was an overlap between the two boats. If this happened, room had to be made to ensure both boats could round the mark safely. Each race had a time limit of 40 minutes, after which the race would be stopped.TVNZ.21/9/2013 Harold Bennett. 2013 America's Cup Race Committee.
Results Challenger determination
The challenger was determined in the 2013 Louis Vuitton Cup challenger selection series. Emirates Team New Zealand won the Louis Vuitton Cup and therefore the right to challenge Oracle Team USA in the America's Cup.
Cheating penalty An international jury found Oracle Team USA guilty of cheating during the America's Cup World Series warmup event in 2012 when they placed bags of lead pellets in their 45-foot catamarans to add additional weight outside of allowed areas."America's Cup: Cheating scandal docks Oracle Team USA two races before main event starts Saturday". 4 September 2013."America's Cup champion Oracle docked 2 points". 4 September 2013."America's Cup 2013: Oracle Team USA docked two points". 4 September 2013. Penalties imposed included expelling three team members, a $250,000 fine, and a one-point penalty for each of the first two races of the Match in which they would otherwise score a point."Jury Notice JN117", 3 September 2013, This last penalty meant that Oracle had to win 11 races to retain the trophy, while New Zealand only needed to win 9 races to lift the cup.
Cup matches The 34th America's Cup was held between challenger Team New Zealand and defender Oracle Team USA on a five-leg course on San Francisco Bay. One point was awarded for winning a race, and a total of nine points were needed to win the cup. Due to the two race penalty assessed on Oracle Team USA, they needed 11 wins to defend the cup.
Wins marked in green Postponed or Abandoned races marked in red