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The America’s Cup is coming back to Newport! OK, so maybe that’s a slight exaggeration. Technically, the America’s Cup World Series is coming to Newport. But the city is still gearing up to greet this event like few others in its long nautical history. Here’s how you can be a part of the action. Enter Sailing World’s Fantasy Sailing League for the Newport stop on the ACWS.
It’s all on the line for the sailors as the Newport stop is the final one for the 2011-’12 season. Can James Spithill and his Oracle Team USA crew hang on to the overall lead in the fleet racing? What about Terry Hutchinson, a former Newport resident who’s spent many a day sailing on these waters, and his Artemis Racing team in the match racing? They’ve been dominant in that discipline, the overall title is all but assured. But can they rule in Newport? And Russell Coutts, after huffing and puffing through the Venice event as one of the grunts, will be back at the helm of Oracle Team USA’s second boat. Can he regain the magic? It doesn’t appear that China Team will be present. But let’s be honest, would any of you have put them in your top five for either event? Each of the eight remaining teams has the potential to win either the fleet or match racing, or maybe even complete the difficult double and win them both.
Just like we did with the San Diego and Venice stops, we’re asking you to pick the top five finishers for both the fleet and match racing portions of the regatta, which starts on June 28. The capsize bonus is back and we’ve got one more bonus question, asking which team is likely to win the most individual fleet races in Newport. The fleet-race scoring weighted so heavily toward the final race, so a team could dominate the first six races of the fleet racing regatta but still wind up in second or third, or worse.
Here’s the link to enter, it won’t take more than a few minutes:
The scoring will go as follows: Pick the first place finisher in the fleet racing and you’ll get 10 points. Second, 8; third, 6, fourth, 4, and fifth, 2. For the match racing, the points are 9 for getting the winner correct, 7 for second, 5 for third, 3 for fourth, and 1 for fifth. The capsize bonus (which only applies during competition from May 17 to 20) could net you five additional points. Also if you correctly guess the team that wins the most individual fleet races you’ll get 3 points for each of those wins. The Speed Test questions will be used to break any ties.
All entries must be in before the first race on June 28. Feel free you change your entry as often as you like. Question four asks whether you’re revising a previous entry, so check that if you entered once but have changed your mind. Maybe your pick for the top spot bombs in the practice racing on June 27. That’s fine, just redo the entry and drop them from contention. We’ll only consider the most recent entry for the purposes of the competition.
To aid your research, here’s a link to the current overall results, including the results from Venice.
Prizes? Yes we have them! First place gets an Artemis Racing gear bag, which includes a tech shirt, polo, and Moleskin notebook. Second scores Oracle schwag: a shirt and hat. Third place gets Artemis Racing shirts and West Marine’s three-season gloves. Check the prizes out on our Facebook page.
