This article is a conceptual outline of the format for the 2013 European Championships in Aarhus, Denmark. The Sailing Instructions are the official rules of the regatta.
The following image is the one that will be used to explain to the general public the format. Note, all sailors will race on all 6 days of the championship even as we use simplified graphics to communicate with the general public.
As normal, all entries will start on an equal basis and do qualifying. The top teams will make the quarter finals. From there the top half will make the semi final and the rest are relegated to the repechage. From the semi final, the top group will make the final and the bottom group will be relegated to the petit final.
Here is the format with a few more details that we’ve added to keep the racing interesting for all involved and to allow for people to make up for a bad start. In this diagram, we note that the top sailor from the Silver fleet after each of the first 2 days (men) 1 day (women) will get promoted to the top fleet.
This image give a few more insites into the specifics of the 2013 European Championship.
Schedule and Fleets
Schedule wise, there is only 1 difference between the 49er championship and the 49erFX championship. The 49er has scheduled 2 days of qualifying while the 49erFX has scheduled 3 days of qualifying. Therefore, in the 49er fleet will have 2 days of quarter final racing while in the 49erFX there will only be 1 day of quarter final racing. A follow on effect of that is that only one 49erFX team will advance back from the Silver fleet up, marked as “leader day 2”. In the 49er, 7 races will be scheduled for the 2 days of qualifying, with 4 scheduled for the first day.
Here are some details on the quarter finals. Assuming an entry list of over 62 boats, the quarter finals will consist of the top 31 teams from qualifying. They will race for 2 days (1 drop after 5 races) and the top 16 will advance to the semi final, the bottom 16 will be relegated to the repachage, where they will be joined by one team from Silver fleet. There must be 3 races in the gold fleet in order to move onward in the regatta structure.
What does ‘leader advances’ refer to? At the end of day 1 and day 2 of Quarter Finals, the highest placed team from Silver fleet will get moved up to the quarter finals or repechage, as applicable. That team will be scored as if they have the same results as the last team who actually participated properly in the racing on that day. So, for example if a team packed up and went home or were injured and had 3 DNF’s, they don’t count, and the team moving up would be placed above them to the next best (worst) placed team.
The Semi Finals is a continuation of the series from Gold Fleet, so teams continue to add races and still just have 1 drop race after 5 races. The semi final is scheduled for 1 day and the top 8 teams move to the final, the other 8 teams are relegated to the Petit final. The schedule is the same for the repechage except only the leader advances to the petit final.
The petit final and final are each to be raced with 9 boats. The petit final has the bottom 8 boats from the semi final plus 1 boat from the repechage for 9 boats. They will race 3 races in the theatre, no drops, and the winner will advance to the final with the same points as the team in 8th place. Then the finals will run with the top 8 teams and the winner of the petit final, in the theatre for 3 races, no drops.
Scoring for the 49er
When qualifying is complete, the teams will carry their place forward as a non discardable score. 7 races are scheduled with 4 scheduled on the first day. Teams will drop 1 race after 5 races.
During the Quarter Final and Semi Final/repechage, teams will carry all of their races scores and one drop will apply after 5 races. There are 3 races scheduled for each day of quarter finals and 4 races scheduled for the semi finals for a total of 10 races.
Heading into the final and petit finals, overnight, teams scores will be ‘1/2 the gaps’. So if the leading team has 20 points, and the second place team has 30 points, on the scoreboard on the final day it will read 0 point for the leader and 5 points for the team in second (1/2 of (30-20) = 5), Odd numbers will be rounded up, so if you are 1 point behind someone you will remain 1 point behind someone. Then each of the 3 theatre style races will be scored as single point scoring. Note, mathematically this is exactly the same as having double point scoring (like a medal race), but it will be easier for the commentators and spectators on the final day to understand single point scorming and it will line up with what the 49erFX fleet is doing.
Scoring for the 49erFX – Elimination Scoring
Days 1-3. The scoring for the qualifying will be low point scoring with no drop races. 9 races are schedules over the first 3 days. Teams will take all of their races forward with them through the whole regatta.
Then the fleet will be split into quarter finals and silver fleet. If there are more than 62 boats, the top 31 will go to the Quarter Finals and the rest will go to silver. If there are less than 62 boats, then the top 1/2 (rounding up) will go to the Quarter final to a minimum of 25 boats. So there will be between 25-31 boats in the quarter finals.
Overnight, the race scores will be recalculated using ‘elimination scoring’ so that only teams that remain in each fleet will be ranked against each other.
Here is an example of elimination scoring. If in race 1, two teams end up in the quarter final and place first and third, and two other teams end up in silver fleet and place second and fourth… after qualifying, the quarter final standings will read 1, 2 (instead of 1, 3) and the silver fleet standings will also read (1, 2) instead of (2, 4). This is done on a fleet wide basis. With qualifying it’s not quite like that, as teams in split fleets who get the same place have the same score (just like normal). Also, no team can have their score go up, only down. Note – teams carry all of their races through the whole event. Letter scores are scored as the fleet size plus 1, like normal, though the fleet size continues to change through the event like all other scores.
Day 4. So then there is 1 day of fleet racing (quarter final/silver) and the top 16 teams from the quarter finals move to the semi final, while the rest of the teams from the quarter finals and the leader from silver fleet move to the repechage. Again, overnight, scores are recalculted using elimination scoring. The team that advances from silver fleet will take the same scoreline as the last place team still competing, like previously written.
Day 5. Then there is the Semi Final racing and repechage. 4 races are schedules for each. At the end of the day, the top 8 teams move to the final and the bottom 8 teams move to the petit final and are joined by the top team from the repechage.
Overnight, the scores are recalcualted using elimination scoring.
Day 6. On the final day, the petit final will have 3 races in the theatre, single point scoring and the winner will move on to the final and will have the same number of points as the last place team in the final. Then the final will have 3 races in the theatre with single point scoring.
