The America’s Cup challengers racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup have formally ratified an agreement that competitors cannot request delays for breakdowns after the five minute, or preparatory, signal for the start of a race. The change applies to the next two rounds and the Semi-Finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

Under the new rules, challengers can still request delays of up to 45 minutes if they experience equipment breakdowns prior to their preparatory signal.

All 11 challenging teams agreed in principle to the alteration last week during a post-Round Robin One meeting with the Race Committee. On 3 November, after the challengers had formally voted on the revised rule, Regatta Operations Director Vince Cooke advised of the change as Amendment #1 to the Notice of Race.

At the post-round meeting last week, San Francisco’s America True syndicate had proposed that the breakdown rule be scrapped altogether. While the challengers could not agree on such a radical step, they settled for banning delays after the five-minute gun.

Condition 14.4 (b) of the Notice of Race has been amended to read: “When advised by a yacht before it’s preparatory signal that it has been disabled, subject to the following:”

The rules still state that during the Final Series of the Louis Vuitton Cup, there will be no postponements for breakdowns “if a yacht is disabled through fault of her own.”