Home - BMW Oracle Racing Blog - Off Day: Protest Preview
Off Day: Protest Preview
Posted 1 year, 2 months ago
Off Day: Protest Preview
"Don't wave that flag at me, red flag that says Code B" tra la la....*Tomorrow your Ed. is going to do his best to take the day off and spend the appropriately-named "Off Day" at home relaxing with wife and daughter, who is now out of school for the summer. Thank goodness our rules adviser, Richard Slater, is still in VLC so he can attend the 11:00 protest hearing as an observer on behalf of our team, and keep us all posted. Here is the pithy (LOL, someone has emailed to ask if we meant, "pissy" -- no!) statement just issued by ETNZ: Emirates Team New Zealand protests Alinghi?s mainsail locking system Emirates Team New Zealand today lodged a protest with the America?s Cup Jury. ETNZ contends that Alinghi?s mainsail locking system on SUI 100 is in breach of the America?s Cup Class Rule. The rule is: 36.1 Mainsails shall be able to be lowered to the deck without the necessity of a crew member going aloft. From what your Ed. has seen and heard, there is little chance the protest will overturn the result of today's win by Alinghi, unless of course ETNZ has "smoking gun" evidence that clearly shows Alinghi could notlover(oops, Freudian slip?) lower their mainsail from the cockpit. Even then, will the jury remove the win? Or find that any such infraction had little or no affect on the outcome of the race? Nonetheless, for some it is an intriguing development. The best take on all this, at least that we have seen so far, is Bob Fisher's piece tonight for the Sail-World website. AC 32 has been remarkably free of controversy and protests. In your Ed.s opinion, the cleanest Cup since 1980. The litany since then: 1983 - "Keelgate" (the winged keel of Australia II). 1987 - "Glassgate" (NZL's first-ever 12- meter yachts built in fiberglass). 1988 - "Cat vs. the Dog" (the rogue NZ challenge in the "Big Boat" defended by SDYC with DC's catamaran -- arguably the worst-ever mismatch in the Cup's long history). 1992 - "Spritgate" (successful protest by Il Moro of the way the Kiwis were sheeting their kite to and through NZL-20's bowsprit). 1995 - "Bait & Switch" (secret, last-minute rules change to allow all three defenders to race in the finals), and "Fluid Thinking" (the alleged design collaboration of Australian challengers to get around the two-boat rule). 2000 - "Candid Camera" (Young America's problems with breakage and keeping their stories straight in front of the jury when asking for time to repair). 2003 - "Designgate" (alleged theft, and use, of design information from the 2000 TNZ defense by the OneWorld Challenge, and subsequent alleged attempts by a former OneWorld official to sell those plans to other challengers), and "Mind the Gap" (the controversy and class rules interpretations surrounding TNZ's controversial "hula" appendage). While there have been a number of contentious issues in AC 32, most have been resolved quickly, and all without full-blown rancor. Here's hoping this Cup's relatively clean copybook can remain unstained for the balance of the Match. *From the infamous parody of the old Sinatra hit, "People Will Say We're in Love" called, "People Will Say You're DQ'd," by Jan Davis (Ann Arbor, MI, USA). Thursday: an "Off Day", except for the Jury, Measurement Committee, and sea-lawyers. Full Story »
Comments are currently disabled
