FIRST DAY ON THE JOB FOR ACRM’S NEW DIRECTOR OF UMPIRING

It's more than a bonus that Mike Martin is tech savvy because in his new role as Director of Umpiring and Rules Administration for AC34, a job he officially starts Monday, he says his big push over the next few months will be working with Stan Honey to get the new technology we’ve all been hearing about up and running for the umpires to use.

“The big change in AC34 is the integration of the technology system," said Iain Murray, Regatta Director, America's Cup Race Management (ACRM). "That's where Mike's background as an engineer is invaluable.”

Martin’s near term priorities also include figuring out all the hardware, boats and communication equipment that his team will need for the rules testing that ACRM will be running late April/early May in Auckland in the AC45s (it’s expected that three or four additional AC45s will come on line this month).

The ISAF Racing Rules of Sailing AC34 edition published last week so it’s now the responsibility of ACRM - and specifically Martin - to hold those rules, maintain them and to recommend any desirable changes to competitors.

“With any set of new rules we are going to trial them and make sure they work - probably some modifications will have to be made,” Martin explained. “We have a radically different format than in the past with catamarans doing 35 knots, all on different configured race courses as well as shorter races, so the rules need to be different to address the characteristics of those boats.”

Martin explained that the testing will include setting up forced situations, for example, in a mark rounding where they’ll have a bunch of boats come into a rounding at once, to see how the new rules play out, then talk to the competitors and get their feedback. “I think it’s very different to the way rules are typically tested because most of the time you don’t have the opportunity for that format. We’re going to have the opportunity to have some of the top match racers in the world testing these rules and we have the ability to modify them.”

He says this new role is a little different than the experience he’s had on technical rules committees where he’d usually be concentrating on measurement and equipment rules but he’s embracing it. “I'm enjoying the opportunity to work with the racing rules. I think they needed updating especially for this new kind of format. I don’t have any history with the America’s Cup but I do have history with high performance boats.”

Martin, 46, grew up in Alexandria, VA, and has been racing since he was 11, on the Potomoc River and in Annapolis. He went to Old Dominion University (Norfolk, VA), graduated in 1989 as a mechanical engineer, raced on the team there and won multiple national championships.

“We had a successful team with myself, Charlie Ogletree and Terry Hutchinson, it was quite the powerhouse team at the time,” he said. Martin won the Laser North Americans in ’85, and the Collegiate Single-handed championships in ’89, rounding out with a Finn campaign during and after college, moving to California in 1990 to Newport Beach for the Finn Olympic trials and never moving back.

He started sailing 505s and in ’99 won the World Championships crewing for Howie Hamlin. “I bought a 505 with the intention to drive but as it was really easy to find good drivers but hard to find good crew I wound up just crewing and sailing with some terrific sailors.” After his win in ’99, Martin started driving and found Jeff Nelson whom he started campaigning with in 2005 and finally won the Worlds in 2009 in San Francisco.

His favorite boat to sail? “I would have to say the 505, it’s high performance, it’s very good in a broad range of conditions. Ironically that’s the goal of the AC45 - high performance in all conditions,” Martin laughs. He’s also done a lot of I-18 skiff sailing, and with Howie Hamlin won the Worlds twice. “Sailing 18s is a lot of fun and obviously very high performance, it’s one of the few boats that will still scare me after all the sailing I’ve done, all the places I’ve sailed and all the conditions I’ve sailed in. It’s definitely a thrill.”

He hasn’t had a chance to sail on the AC45 yet but he plans on it. “We umpires need to as I think it’s very important for us to understand how the boat handles and what they are and aren’t capable of for example, in determining how hard someone tried to keep clear - whether they really could or couldn’t…”

And if you were wondering, Mike is married - for 10 years - to Stephanie Martin, Communications Director for America's Cup Event Authority.

*America’s Cup Chief Umpires for the past two Cup events were Bill Edgerton, Great Britain (AC33) and Brad Dellenbaugh, USA (AC32).

Top pic - Mike Martin helming in the 505 Worlds on San Francisco Bay, 2009

LEADING EDGE CURRENT MEASUREMENT DATA AVAILABLE FOR AC34

iPhone app soon available

Dr. Newell “Toby” Garfield is Director and Professor of Oceanography at the Romberg Tiburon Center, San Francisco State University (part of the California State University System). His organization has some assets that he’d like to offer to the organizers of the next America’s Cup.

Garfield’s team has developed technology to measure surface currents using shore-based radio Doppler remote sensors to map surface currents over a large area with sufficiently high temporal and spatial resolution.

For sailors, this means RTC can measure the whole area that America’s Cup Race Management (ACRM) has designated for the AC34 racecourse and provide current data at half hour intervals with a spatial resolution of 400 meters. With a few more antennae established at pivotal locations around the Bay, RTC hopes to bring that spatial resolution down to about 200 meters for even tighter near-time current measurement.

According to Garfield, in prior America’s Cup competition spatial variation of the currents did not play a significant role; in the open ocean like Valencia and Auckland the currents were spatially relatively constant. We know that on San Francisco Bay surface currents, waves and wind will likely be highly variable over the racecourse area during racing.

Currents near the Golden Gate can reach speeds of nearly 3 m/s (6 knots) while to the east the currents don’t usually exceed 1 m/s. During the tidal cycle strong current fronts migrate across the region, accompanied by changes in the waves, always posing significant challenge for sailors racing on the Bay.

“For the America’s Cup and for all sailors on the Bay, the goal is to compute the currents with minimal lag time and then develop projections for “real time” and short term forecasts,” Garfield said. “For someone not familiar with the Bay, it levels the playing field on what the current variability is across the Bay and will start showing people where these things are on an hourly basis right through the tidal cycle.”

Garfield doubts that anyone else has this kind of data to offer. “Anybody else that would give you the kind of resolution we’re getting would have to be using a model - this is our prediction based on the physics - most models wont be able to that. This is the equivalent of putting in a current meter every 200 meters on the whole racecourse which would be impossible.”

His team is working on an iPhone app as a mechanism to deliver the current information that Garfield anticipates will available in about a month. Presently, the only way to retrieve the data is from the RTC website but it is completely free to anyone who wants to use it.

Garfield concluded, “Because it’s a state-funded project there’s not a lot of direct benefit to RTC. Our goal is to create a demand for the information just to keep the funding in place to be able to continue providing this data which has important application for all Bay sailors.” For more information, visit http://www.rtc.sfsu.edu

*NOTE: Garfield is hoping to garner interest from AC34 parties who would be interested in another RTC asset - its incredible waterfront facility located on the east side of Tiburon in Marin County. Just a short boat ride over to the San Francisco city front, RTC consists of 11 acres of flat land with deep water access - over 25 feet, a much sought after resource on the Bay and a perfect location for AC hospitality activities and other. For more info contact Toby Garfield at garfield@sfsu.edu

Left pic: The 42 MHz Seasonde antenna located at Crissy Field.

Right pic: Green drops represent presently deployed HF radar systems on SF Bay; red crosses indicate locations of proposed additional systems.

And So The Ball Rolls...

Announced today by the San Francisco Planning Department, Major Environmental Analysis (MEA) Division is the issuance of a Notice of Preparation (NOP) of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the proposed 34th America's Cup Races and Pier 27 James R. Herman Cruise Terminal and Northeast Wharf Plaza Project, all located along the San Francisco city front.

The NOP is the "kick-off" document for public review and comment, and includes information on how to provide oral and written comments to the San Francisco Planning Department. According to America's Cup Event Authority (ACEA), also included with the NOP is the above map of the proposed AC34 race area.

The NOP states dates for two public scoping meetings to receive public comment:

* Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011, 6:30‐8:30 pm, at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Chamber, Room 250, City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place

* Thursday February 24th, 2011, 6:30‐8:30 pm, at the Port of San Francisco, Pier 1, The Embarcadero at Washington Street.

The purpose of these meetings is to receive oral comments to assist the San Francisco Planning Department in reviewing the scope and content of the environmental impact analysis and information to be contained in the EIR for the proposed project.

Written comments will also be accepted until 5:00 p.m. on March 11, 2011. Written comments should be sent to Bill Wycko, San Francisco Planning Department, 1650 Mission Street, Suite 400, San Francisco, CA 94103.

The NOP is posted on the SF Planning Department website: http://sfmea.sfplanning.org/2010.0493E_NOP.pdf

Related: San Francisco supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to waive competitive bidding requirements before hiring a consultant for its America's Cup environmental study, selecting Environmental Science Associates, a San Francisco firm, for the job. Read more: http://tinyurl.com/65rps85

ACRM HITS THE GROUND RUNNING

Iain Murray, an Australian former pro sailor, has been spending a lot of time in San Francisco lately, keenly aware that he’s got a full plate over the next few years as the America’s Cup and its entourage roll into town. As Regatta Director and CEO for America’s Cup Race Management (ACRM), the logistics arm of the world’s largest sailing event, Murray is undoubtedly the man for the job.

His resume is awe-inspiring; suffice to say in recognition for his achievements and meritorious service to sport and community, the 52-year old was presented in 1992 the Order of Australia, AM, an order of chivalry established by Queen Elizabeth II.

With an illustrious sailing career and great success as a real estate developer and businessman under his belt, the prospect of what lays ahead for Murray in the America’s Cup 34 is both overwhelming and thrilling. “It’s exciting but there’s a lot to do so it’s a little daunting at this stage - there’s a lot of process in this thing and we’re right at the beginning,” Murray said.

He’s not losing anytime getting to business for ACRM. Shortly after San Francisco was announced on December 31 as the venue for the 34^th America’s Cup, he met with City Hall and the Port of San Francisco to start planning some of the next steps forward. “We’ve got an agreement in place and now we’re getting down to the working part of what we need,” Murray said. “We’re meeting with architects, engineers, the Port, starting the CEQA environmental process – all to find out how we’re going to plan the structure and layout of this event.”

Working together with America’s Cup Event Authority (ACEA), the commercial arm of the America’s Cup, ACRM is charged with multiple responsibilities: for putting on the races, controlling the rules, providing the power boats, the staff, the judges, administering the races and communicating with all the athletes or the teams. Additionally, for the first time in an America’s Cup event, ACRM will manage the World Series (a new precursor event to the Cup) and as part of that, all of the logistics from breaking down and shipping the AC45s, the catamarans that will be raced during the World Series, to building the event villages at each location along the World Series tour. “We pull them down, we move it all,” Murray said.

A huge element of putting on a sailing event of this magnitude is the volunteer effort that will be required to simply get the show off the ground. Murray’s team will be reaching out to Bay Area Yacht Clubs for their assistance. “Those relationships will develop, probably through the Principal Race Officer (PRO) who will be out there with his team to attract the necessary people,” Murray said. “We very much want to source locally if we can and I am sure there will be an involvement of all the clubs around the Bay.”

Much of the role of interaction with local clubs will be the responsibility of the PRO, who with his team will also take charge of starting the permitting process. Said Murray, “We’ll have a core team then there’ll be similar teams in the different locations for the World Series with supplementary people, some being professional and some being volunteer. They’ll also have to manage approvals and permitting in their venue.” Additionally, there’s a rules division where there’ll be a need for umpire boats, umpire staffing and judges.

Sailors are clearly curious about the racecourse, especially with the traffic challenges on San Francisco Bay. According to Murray, the course is essentially going to be from the top of Treasure Island, probably a mile west of the bridge to the shore, back to Treasure Island, or back to Angel Island. “It’s going to be in that body of water, “ he confirmed. Discussions about the course are taken up regularly with representatives from the challenging teams in the competitors’ forum, he added. Regardless, it’s all going to happen in the city front, and effectively there’ll be just one course. Murray said, “If we’re running match races, we may have a race at 11am, noon, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm and so on, but because of the television requirements, the equipment, the boundaries and so on, we really just want to use one course area. It’ll be a lot more specialized than it has been in the past. And the wind is a lot more reliable right there too.”

Regardless, the target time to get the boats around the course in the World Series events at least is 45 minutes, a time that is basically television driven - it could be that the America’s Cup is a longer race but it could also be a 45-minute race. Murray says it’s too early to tell.

Fleet racing will dominate the World Series events, and according to Murray, it’s possible that some of the challenger selection series will also be fleet racing, but he assures that THE match is match racing. “There is a desire I think by a lot of people to have fleet racing, more than match,” he said. “This will be ironed out in the competitor’s forums. We’ve got to get near the end of the entry period and see how many competitors we have first. We have six today.”

Entries are slowly coming on board, although key teams like Emirates Team New Zealand have been dragging their feet. Murray thinks there’ll easily be ten teams. “Even with our six signed on who will be in the World Series, which is great, it’s still a step up from that from the 45s to the 72s in the America’s Cup – that’s a big jump. The fact that they’ve entered is no guarantee that they’ll get there. But it is all good, especially compared to AC32 where there weren’t many early entries, this is surprisingly good. The majority of the teams we’ve got are strong.”

Essentially the decision comes down to Murray as to how the umpiring will be run. While it’s not yet been announced, a manager of the umpiring process has been appointed, apparently a world champion sailor from California. The jury has been selected and sorted out through ISAF who’ve been charged with a lot of the responsibility that’s probably taken place in the courts in the past and very much wont be in the future, said Murray. “The jury and umpiring of how this is done will be quite different to what’s been done in the past. As fast as these boats are going to go, it’s not really possible to chase them around in 30-35 knots – you’re just going to kill people.”

As has been well publicized, this event is going to see plenty of electronics, television and, says Murray, military grade GPS involved in the umpiring of the boats, with trials having gone on in that equipment for some time.

Murray is clearly turned on by what the television prospects are going to be for AC34, or at least the vision. “The technology that we’re talking about is technology that’s come from this country – Stan Honey, Rolex Yachtsman of the Year, has taken his race-car technology to new levels. Trials are indicating that it’s going to be good. It’s all about putting the vision out there to the masses, enhancing the television.”

The vision, according to Murray, is to make the races short and sharp with strong competition and close races, lots of opportunities, and young athletic crews.

“They’re going to have to be real athletes to sail these boats – prevailing in the end to teams to be the ultimate winners in close races, and all of that brought to people on high quality TV with the latest technology, tight shots, tracking the boats, showing who is in front – sailing’s a difficult sport to capture and understand. So we’re doing a lot of things – we’re writing America’s Cup specific rules – within ISAF we have our own rules for racing these boats. All of that stuff is happening right now.”

Regardless of what it’ll look like on TV, the views shore-side will be thrilling. Murray said, “These boats are just going to burn up the race course. They’re going to be forced to do multiple laps. If you consider that they’re going to go about three miles, effectively from the Golden Gate bridge down to the other side of Alcatraz, in only six minutes, get your head around that because that’s what they’re going to do.”