Race before the race can be key to victory
Coming up with right strategy and timing at start line a ‘huge’ part of the competition
In the two minutes or so before a fleet race begins in this week’s America’s Cup World Series on San Francisco Bay, before the 11 catamarans crank up their awesome speeds, they will be jockeying for position.
Depending on where the first turning mark (or reach mark) is set, they may try to get near the leeward side of the starting line because that probably will be the nearest point to the mark. Or they may opt for the windward side of the starting line, figuring that might give them the best angle with the wind. They would go a slightly longer distance, only faster.
This brief period just before the race begins is called the prestart. Often the winner is determined before the race even starts.
“It sure makes life easier when you start ahead in a yacht race,’’ said John Kostecki, the tactician for skipper Jimmy Spithill’s Oracle Team USA boat.
It’s a little like chess, except that you’re playing with multiple opponents at once. You have to take them all into consideration, along with the wind, the tide and how the course is laid out. The most critical consideration, though, is the clock.
As it winds down, the idea is to hit the invisible starting line between the two race committee boats as close as possible to zero. If you jump, or break, the start, you’re penalized. You have to slow down until all the boats that have passed the line in the five seconds have passed.
The prestart in a fleet race is “huge,’’ Spithill said. “There’s a lot of passing (during the race), which is great. But the
start is really important. The guy that hits the first reach mark in the lead will normally be in the top three. That’s where you want to be.’’
In match races, the one-on-one duels that are also part of the World Series regatta, the start (and thus the prestart) is even more important. Whoever is ahead by the first mark determines the race winner 60 percent of the time, according to Russell Coutts, the four-time America’s Cup winner who will skipper the other Oracle Team USA boat.
“In Venice, Loïck Peyron (of France’s Energy Team) came from last at the first turning mark to win a (fleet) race,’’ Coutts said. “In a match race, it’s critical.’’
On TV, the starting line will be marked by computer-graphics technology, like football’s yellow first-down line. On the water, it’s not that obvious. Each of the teams will need to make several practice runs to determine where the line is, by trial and error and
with the help of a coach on the shore.
“You just have to use your instinct,’’ Spithill said.
Then you have to plan how to time your speed to hit the line at precisely the right moment.
In the Newport, R.I., match-race final July 1, Spithill chose to lead Coutts to the line but was a little early. So he had to kill time while trying to block Coutts from getting past him. Coutts, however, faked a tack to one side and went to the other, maneuvering around Spithill’s boat by barely a yard. But he zipped past Spithill at the bottom (leeward) end of the start at 20 knots and won comfortably.
“I messed it up and allowed the old bugger to get in there and gave him a big gift,’’ Spithill said. He said Coutts has been reminding him of it ever since then.
Nevertheless, Spithill’s crew clinched the 2011-12 overall championship in Newport. The San Francisco regatta marks the start of theACWS season, in preparation for the 2013 America’s Cup, which will match gigantic 72-foot catamarans with 130-foot wing sails.
Choosing the so-called “happy line’’ from the start to the first mark takes considerable skill and experience. On the 72s, computers will determine the line. Because presumably all the boats will shoot for the same happy line, the jockeying will be intense.
For the current 45-footers, picking the best starting point will depend mainly on the speed and direction of the wind. The difference in speed from one end of the line to the other could be as much as 8 percent, Coutts said.
If several of the boats start on the leeward side of the starting line, a skipper might be better served on the other end, to avoid the traffic.
“When there’s going to be a s— fight down at one end or the other, quite often it pays to avoid that,’’ Coutts said. “I might not be leading at the first mark, but I might be second, which is better than being sixth.’’
The Oracle boats have done some practice racing on the planned course off the Marina Green. “What we’ve learned is it’s an incredibly tough racetrack,’’ Spithill said. “It’s not always obvious which way to go (at the start). The good news is that that will create really good racing.’’ Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com