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Match 6 Review: The Gate

Posted 1 year, 5 months ago

Match 6 Review: The Gate
It was the story of today's terrific race. Back in October, 2005 here on the BOB we ran a post about the tactical and navigational challenges the gate presents.... The Gate Another subtle but important innovation for this 32nd America's Cup, about which I have seen little if anything written, is "the gate." In past Cups the end of the downwind legs was a buoy. If two yachts in a match were close -- within, say, four boat lengths -- after rounding the bottom mark the trailing yacht almost always got hosed by the "bad air" (vortex of disturbed wind of coming off the sails) of the yacht ahead, and lost another couple boat lengths. The rich got richer, and it further reduced the chances of the trailing yacht ever passing in a match. In the months after the 2003 Cup, during one of the many meetings between the Defender (Alinghi) and Challenger of Record (BMWOR) to lay down the event plan, class rule, etc., we decided to replace the leeward mark with two buoys -- a gate -- through which the yachts must pass and then have the choice of rounding either end to begin the next windward leg. A gate is now quite common in large fleets, such as the Farr 40 class, where a pile of boats often arrive at end of the downwind leg at nearly the same time. The gate helps minimize the traffic jam and resulting "pinwheel effect" at a single buoy as boats astern literally had to slow down and keep clear while the yachts ahead rounded the mark. The adoption of a leeward gate for the Cup has, by all accounts, been well received by the sailors, both for fleet and match racing. And it presents a new set of tactical challenges, and conflicting choices. Full story ?It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.? --William Ernest Henley, 1849-1903. Born in England two years before that famous 1851 yacht race, he could have never imagined how prophetic his popular quote might be today in VLC, 104 years after his death. Full Story »

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