After a long absence from the world sailing calendars, the Little America’s Cup (LAC) was back in 2004 under the name International C-Class Catamaran Championship (ICCC). It was revived by a group of keen sailors and engineers, from the USA, the UK and Australia, lead by Steve Clark, last winner of the race back in 1996. They all joined in Bristol (Rhode Island, USA) to compete in a 2 weeks-long event
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Picture of all of the catamaran's taking part in the 2004 event
The C-Class community has now moved away from the ICCT and the Sea Cliff Yacht Club, due to disagreements on the format of the Little America’s Cup. In addition, due to the very small number of boats exhisting today, the International Federation (ISAF) has decided to drop the C-Class. So officially it cannot be called an “international” class anymore although the nature of the event and the teams involved makes it a real international event.
For these reasons, in 2004 there was no ruling body to validate whether a design was a C-class or not or to provide umpiring. Despite this, the teams took part in the event in an unprecedented gentlemanly sportsmanship, with boats based on mutually agreed trust.
Now looking toward the future, the C-class community has formed its own governing body, the International C-Class Catamaran Association (ICCA), lead by Steve Clark (president) and Duncan MacLane, who both made an outstanding contribution to preparing the 2004 LAC. A new trophy has also been put together, listing all the former winners of the cup. This may have the advantage that the people most involved in the class will control their own destiny while all united under the same banner of the ICCA.
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The New Trophy
The LAC has always been a symbol of excellence and innovation in the world of sailing. It has lead many developments and changes throughout the history of multi-hulls yachting. It has been qualified many times of Formula 1 of yachting because of large part of design and engineering involved. It has the same aspiration for top performance without any compromised as found in the top branches of motorsport. It is the ambition of all the people involved in the C-class community today to regain this status of excellence.
Racing Format
The 2004 event brought a slightly modified racing format bringing more excitement both for the sailors and the public. Where the LAC used to be a succession of match-races where 2 boats race each other until the final 2 race for the title, it is now a mix of fleet and match races. The introduction of fleet racing is aimed at creating more exciting races and adding to the thrill of speed sailing by having a real battle on the water. Just for the same reasons as it is great to have a whole group of F1 cars around a race track. The exact format is as follow, it is divided into two main phases:
Preliminary races:
5 days of fleet racing, 3 races per day.
Each day is scored a if it were a regatta, so the day's winner gets 1 point, second gets 2 points etc.
after 5 days, boats 1 and 2 match race in the Grand Finals.
Boats 3 and 4 match race in the Petite Finals
Boats 5 and 6 match race in the Tres Petite Finals and so forth right down to the I can't believe how teenie weenie and insignificant it is Finals.
Finals:
Similar format as above, to win the day a boat has to win two races.
Day winner gets 1 point, second place gets 0 points
First boat to 3 points wins.
The course is similar to legs 1-6 of the ICCT (International C-Class Challenge Trophy, the old LAC) course, i.e.: beat, broad reach, beam reach, broad reach, beat, run. This is show on the diagram below. However, the Race Committee has the right to change the course if weather conditions require it. This was the case in 2004 when winds were too low to go around the normal course within the required time. The course was therefore reduced to an upwind and a downwind leg.
The course is approximately 6 nautical miles (11.11 km) long. Based on past records, each races should take approx 40 minutes.
Wind speed window is 3-20 knots ( 1.5-10 m/s) as determined by the race commitee. General suitability of conditions at discretion of Race Committee.
Substitution of equipment: by permission of the Jury only.
Substitution of crew. Not permitted except in case of serious injury and with permission of the Jury.
Technical rules for the C-Class catamaran are available here.
Next Event
During the 2004 event in Bristol (RI, USA), the ICCA board, alongside all the teams present, agreed that in the future, the event will be hosted alternatively by the different teams member of the ICCA. This will favour more varied conditions and even more excitement for all the teams.
It has been agreed that the next event will be hosted the ROYAL CANADIAN YACHT CLUB, Toronto, in September 2007. The 3 teams present in 2004, including Team Invictus, have already reconfirmed their intention to take part. We have recently been joined by a fourth team headed by Fred Eaton from Toronto (who is organising the next event), and it is hoped and expected that more will come in the future. This could potentially mean fleet racing with 8 to 10 C-Class at a time! What a Thrill!!!
Further information will be available closer to the date. Keep informed!