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| A REVIEW OF REGATTA FORMATS |
Peter Gilmour and the Pizza-La Sailing Team hardly leave a bow wave ghosting downwind at Match Race Germany against Mathieu Richard. (Swedish Match Tour/Guido Cantini)
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Mathieu Richard’s bowman Yannick Simon holds the tack of the spinnaker off the headstay so the jib may be raised. (Swedish Match Tour/Guido Cantini)
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LANGENARGEN, Germany (May 14, 2005) — During Friday evening’s press conference at Match Race Germany, Peter Gilmour, the reigning Swedish Match Tour and Match Race Germany champion, firmly expressed his displeasure with the event’s format.
Match Race Germany splits its 12 teams into two groups of six. Each group sails a five-race round robin. The top four in each group advance to the Quarterfinal Round, which can either be a round robin or a knockout series, while the bottom two in each group are eliminated.
The four teams eliminated were Ian Ainslie (RSA), Team Shosholoza, Jan Eike Andresen (GER), Sebastian Col (FRA), K-Challenge, and Mathieu Richard (FRA). Two of the teams represent America’s Cup syndicates.
The four teams sailed a one race sailoff for places 9 through 12, but they’re all young and inexperienced match-racers who would’ve rather kept racing.
Gilmour favors a double round robin, followed by semifinals and final. “That way the cream rises to the top,” said the veteran match-racer.
Last week the Tour event in Italy split the 14 teams into two groups of seven, and each group sailed a six-race round robin. The top three in each group advanced to the quarterfinals. The bottom three in each group advanced to a repechage round, where they got another chance to reach the quarterfinals.
The repechage round was a one race sailoff among the eight crews. Win and you kept advancing. Lose and your regatta ended.
The system helped champion Russell Coutts. Coutts placed fourth in his round robin, which put him in the repechage round. He won the two races necessary to advance to the quarterfinals, and eventually made it to the championship, although his quarterfinal, semifinal and final round matches went three, five and five races, respectively, the maximum allowed.
Coutts is a proponent of a ladder-style system as in a tennis event, where teams are ranked and play a best-of-five set. Win and you go on. Lose and you go home.
“I think it’s a fairer way to do it,” he said. “A single round robin with six races is no good. I’m against the round robin format, and I don’t think the sailors like it.”
Gilmour disagrees with Coutts.
“If I’d gotten eliminated after five races I’d be doing some pounding,” Gilmour said. “And the point is that the young guys aren’t getting enough experience. Four teams only sailed five races, and now they’re going home. The only fair way is a double round robin followed by semis and final. That way the cream rises to the top.”
A poll of some of the sailors at Match Race Germany showed more in agreement with Gilmour than Coutts. Here’s what they had to say.
Ben Ainslie (GBR), Emirates Team New Zealand
“The best event I ever did was the Australia Cup. We sailed 10 races then the semis and final. But, you’re guaranteed wind there. Everyone is guaranteed racing. Last week (in Italy) we were on the tough side of it. We tied for our group win and then got knocked out in the repechage round. It was tough way to go. If we hadn’t done well we would’ve been happy to go to the repechage round. Gilly’s got a valid point. I prefer to be guaranteed a certain number of races. Trying to guarantee racing is the thing. The top guys will always go through. A ladder-style like in a tennis tournament won’t always work. The difference with tennis is that once you’re out of an event you can hop on a plane and go to the next one. That’s not the case here.”
Ed Baird (USA) Team Alinghi
“The best format is when everyone can sail each other. Sometimes you can’t do that. In that case the next best thing is what they do here. It achieves two things. First, it gives a result if there’s no wind on the last day. Second, it eliminates the risk of the two best teams meeting in the quarterfinals with one being eliminated. The problem with Elba was that we sailed the best two-of-three in the quarterfinals, and then best three-of-five in the semis and final. It should’ve been the other way around to give the sailors more opportunity to refine their game in the earlier rounds. But you run the risk of losing one of the two best teams early in the event. It’s bad for the credibility of the event and the sport. I understand it gives a result everyday, but in the big scheme of things it’s better for true champions to have more races.”
Jesper Bank (DEN) United Internet Team Germany
“I like to get as much racing as possible. In a fleet like this you could end up with 22 races before going home. That suits me perfect. You have the best sailors in the world here. Why not take advantage of it? I prefer as much sailing as possible.”
Bertrand Pacé (FRA), BMW Oracle Racing
“Here it is special because a lot of guys come a long way for five races and then leave. That’s not very fair. The best format is one that puts the top four sailors in the semifinal. The simple format is the best one. A round robin is a simple format.”
Alex Runciman (RSA) Team Shosholoza trimmer
“It’s bloody expensive getting here for just five races. It’s very expensive per race. We’re not here for the prize money. We’re here for the experience, so we want to sail as much as possible. We didn’t do well, but we feel like we got shafted. If we had done well and lost in later rounds, we could accept it if we got shafted. It’s often better to have a full round robin. You get to race the whole field. If you compare it to the America’s Cup boats, we don’t race unless there’s wind blowing steady.”
John Standley (AUS), Chief Umpire
“I would prefer a full round robin then quarterfinals, semifinals and final. Or whatever, but a full round robin. The advantage then is that you’ve got an event if it turns to custard. If this event turns to custard, we’ve got no way of sorting it out.”
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RELATED CONTENT
Gilmour, Baird Undefeated in Quarterfinals (May 14, 2005)
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Brilliant Conditions on Lake Constance (May 12, 2005)
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