America's Cup: No broadcast imposed time limit in Bermuda

Emirates Team New Zealand competes in the 35th America's Cup sailing event on the Great Sound in Bermuda on Saturday, May 27, 2017. Photo / Ricardo Pinto.

The broadcast imposed time limit that robbed Team New Zealand of America's Cup glory in San Francisco in 2013 will not be a factor in this year's event in Bermuda.

One of the most enduring memories of the 34th Cup match for many New Zealand fans was the abandonment of race 13 as Emirates Team New Zealand, who needed only one win to claim the Auld Mug, rounded the final mark just a few hundred metres from home.

Dean Barker and crew had sailed a smart race in fluky conditions, and they were about to win the America's Cup for their efforts. But as the Kiwi boat drifted towards the finish line, its hulls dragging through the water, the 40-minute maximum time limit kicked in and the race was converted from a foregone conclusion to a forfeit.

There will be no such farcical scenes on the Great Sound in Bermuda over the next month, with America's Cup race management having the ability to shorten the course if it looks as though the 25-minute time limit may be exceeded. Those powers extend to being able to shorten the course while a race is in progress.

"We can shorten the course in a lot of different ways during the race - we can shorten the leg lengths, we can drop a leg out, we can shorten between marks. We will try to avoid getting to the time limit, which is quite different to what it was in 2013," said regatta director Iain Murray.

The only instance in which a race will be abandoned because of the time limit is if the leading boat fails to make it to the first leeward gate from the start.

The Great Sound is a very different sailing venue to that of San Francisco. The wind on San Francisco Bay always comes from the west, which allowed race management to set the same course each day.

The weather in Bermuda, which sits alone in the middle of the Atlantic, is a lot more changeable and race management set the course each day according to the wind direction.

The light, fluky conditions during Monday saw the length of the legs shortened to 0.95 nautical miles for one of the races. Yesterday, in the heavier air, the runs extending out to 1.2nm.

During the racing, the on-water officials are constantly keeping a look out at any changes in wind direction, and adjusting the course accordingly.

"[On Monday] we changed the course probably three times - once during a race," said Murray.

"It's hard to massage these races depending on whether they get into a tacking duel at the start or are minute late, or have an incident.

"There are quite big shifts out there, that's sort of the part that makes it difficult and that's the part that makes a big difference to the speed of the boat around the track."