Fantasy Sailing League: America's Cup World Series, Venice
Fantasy Sailing League: America's Cup World Series, Venice
Summer is right around the corner, which means now is the time to grab a new spray jacket, a pair of gloves, or a rigging knife. You could head over to West Marine and buy them, or you could compete in our Fantasy Sailing League and maybe win one of those key piece of sailing gear.
The Naples stop of the 2011-'12 America's Cup World Series had it all. Thrilling action, plenty of lead changes, big winds and waves, capsizes, and a big upset in the final standings. It would've been perfect for the Fantasy Sailing League. Unfortunately we were a little head down at Sailing World HQ and didn't get things rolling in time. But hopefully Venice will provide us with a similar level of excitement because we're bringing our Fantasy Sailing League competition out of retirement (hopefully for good). With two new competitive teams from Luna Rossa, plus Team Korea and Nathan Outteridge getting a feel for the boat, and Russell Coutts back onboard one of the Oracle Racing boats, the competition should be harder to call than ever.
Just like we did with the San Diego stop, we're asking you to pick the top five finishers for both the fleet and match racing portions of the regatta, which starts on May 17. The capsize bonus is back (would you have picked Artemis to go upside down?) and we've got one more bonus question, asking which team is likely to win the most individual fleet races in Venice. 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: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/56BRS26
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 May 17. 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 City of Venice Regatta May 12 and 13. 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 standings, plus the results from Naples.
As for the prizes. West Marine has graciously supplied us with a sweet trio of prizes for the top three finishers (based on total points accumulated according to the scoring matrix):
First: West Marine Typhoon Jacket: This is just the piece of kit for a drizzly summer evening race, or a wet blast across the bay. Or a trip to the pub when the fog rolls in. It's waterproof and windproof and has a lined collar for comfort.
Second: His and Hers Full-Finger Gloves: After a long winter of getting soft, your hands aren't quite ready for the rigors of a long spinnaker run in 20 knots, or trimming the main through a frantic pre-start. Keep the blisters at bay (for both you and the missus, or vice verse) with these full-finger gloves.
Third: West Marine's Performance Rigging Knife by SOG. Salt water wrecks knives and multitools. So start the season off with a fresh blade. Comes with a locking marlinspike and shackle key.
Fourth and Fifth: Sailing World T-shirt or Dr. Crash calendar.
For first and second prizes, the items are exhangeable for a different size at any West Marine.
