Capsize prompts safety rule change
Anew safety rule has emerged in the wake of American Magic’s capsize while an expanded innercity racing zone has also been approved and will come into play when the Prada Cup round-robin racing resumes today.
Regatta director Iain Murray confirmed the changes as refinements continue to emerge with the limits and the potential of the radical new high-speed foiling monohulls unfolding during this first phase of official racing at Auckland 2021.
The new safety rule will see a boat instantly ruled out of the race the moment it capsizes to allow quicker rescue assistance.
Previously the rule said a boat would only be disqualified when it received outside assistance.
Murray’s review of last Sunday’s dramatic capsize by American Magic showed that he couldn’t rule them disqualified until five minutes after Patriot went over on its side.
He believes about four minutes of safety opportunities could have been saved had the new capsize rule been in place.
Murray said the initial plan for the AC75s was to make them selfrighting.
But the history of the capsizes in training and racing showed the boats need to be righted with the assistance of the chase boats, so he felt an instant disqualification was now more relevant.
‘‘It has become very clear to everyone that when a boat capsizes, it’s 99 per cent out of the race,’’ Murray said yesterday.
‘‘We are trying to bring the safety forward to make it as efficient as we can.
‘‘After reviewing what happened last weekend when they took nearly five minutes for that assistance to be given, we felt there was a fourminute window of opportunity that that help could have been directed straight at the yacht.
‘‘We want to get there, we want to get a head count and make sure everything is alright.
‘‘Our target is to do that within a minute, and we want to render assistance straight away.
‘‘It’s a small change to the rule but automatically it allows people to get on the job.’’
The tweaks to the race course area are being made to maximise the inner-city region and the stadium opportunities presented to land-based fans.
The priority Course Z zone that runs from North Head out to
Rangitoto Island has been expanded to take in parts of Course B along the Takapuna and Milford area and Course D that runs along the eastern bays and out to Browns Island.
‘‘It became obvious to me being here and looking at the winds and reviewing this on a daily basis that there’s a very good area in Course C and the priority for the regatta was to make it work in Course C,’’ Murray said.
He has used his discretion to broaden the zone, given him more options to work with the various winds that funnel around Rangitoto and North Head.
Murray said this was his ‘‘priority area’’ and the changes would help in terms of being able to get racing under way in a multiple range of conditions under the wind limits that range from 6.5 to 21 knots for the current phase racing. The upper wind limit is stretched to 23 knots for the Prada Cup challengers final in February and the America’s Cup match in March.
He also felt that Course E, situated further east off Maraetai, provided him with a ‘‘safe zone’’ to get racing under way in a broad range of winds if necessary, particularly if the summer sea breezes were battling against southwesterlies.