Emirates
Team New Zealand has finished top qualifier in
the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland regatta with a six win, one loss record in
the round robin.
In
today’s final race in the round robin, Emirates Team New Zealand
beat Synergy by a minute.
The race
committee’s mission on Tuesday was to get seven races away to catch up on the
three lost yesterday because of the wind.
Today’s
first match, the ETNZ and Synergy clash, was delayed by a soft and shifty
breeze. By the time the race started the breeze was a good 16 knots, but it was
still shifty and conditions were tricky.
Synergy
got the better of the start and looked strong on the beat until Barker applied
some pressure from behind and Synergy split rather than engage. That gave
Barker the leverage he needed and when the yachts came together again he was
comfortably ahead.
Skipper Dean Barker: “Synergy did well in the start and got
away fast. Our guys did a great job to keep it close up the beat.
“Then we
threw a few tacks at them, forcing a split to the left. We got some leverage
and crossed in front of them before the top mark.”
From
there, Emirates Team New Zealand maintained control,
and sailed well to comfortably maintain their lead.
ETNZ
rounded the first mark 26 sec ahead, extended on the run to 38 sec and by mark
3 was mare than a minute in front. At the end the margin was one minute.
Race format: for the rest of the regatta:
At the end
of the round robin each team has
raced every other team once to determine a ranking used in the following stages
of the event.
1. Elimination round one – the competitors sail a knockout series,
using the rankings from the round robin so 1st vs. 8th, 2nd vs. 7th, and so on.
The two highest ranked teams (using the round robin ranking) that win their
matches in this round advance directly to the semi-finals. The two lowest
ranked teams (using the round robin ranking) to lose their matches in this
round are eliminated.
2. Elimination round two – the four remaining teams are paired and
race for the two remaining semi final berths, with the winner from each pair
advancing and the loser eliminated.
3. In the semi-final, the four remaining teams
are paired and race a ‘first to two points’ series. The winner from each pair
advances to the final.
4. In the final, the winners from each semi-final
pair race a ‘first to four points’ series to determine the winner of the Louis
Vuitton Trophy Auckland.
The above format is called the MacIntyre System, named
for Ken McIntyre who developed it for Australian rugby league tournaments in
the 1930s. Ioday it is widely used in top sports tournaments,.
The system makes each race meaningful for each team,
right up until the moment they are eliminated. It rewards teams that build a
good record in the round robin by referring back to that ranking at later
stages, yet it allows teams that improve over the course of the regatta to
advance if they keep winning.