"Even with Artemis, it wasn't exactly Disneyland," commented Grant Dalton, the talkative team boss of Emirates Team New Zealand, on the confused state of the America's Cup caused by the death of Andrew Simpson. "We've been warning for two and a half years about the risk of the regatta not attracting enough challengers, but not everyone listened," he told the New Zealand Herald.
The "white elephant" in the room is Artemis and the question of whether the Swedish team will start late or at all, writes the newspaper. "There are indications that they will not sail for the whole of July. They don't have a new wing sail. The boat could need structural modifications, especially if it has the hull design that is said to be to blame for the Simpson tragedy."
Dalton's friend and confidant Mick Cookson, in whose shipyard in Auckland the cats of Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa were built, is extremely sceptical. "I've been building racing yachts for the Volvo Ocean Race and the America's Cup for more than 30 years, so I've seen a lot. For the life of me, I can't imagine how Artemis could make a comeback from this situation and with so little time," he told YACHT online.
And Dalton adds: "You first have to learn to sail the boat in order to be able to push the limits without difficulty. We wouldn't be able to do this in the time remaining." According to the Herald, if Artemis were to miss out, there would be a farce because only the two remaining challengers, Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa, would sail against each other day after day. And they already did that during the training phase in New Zealand. If Artemis were to join them later on, the mode of organisation could be changed so that the winner would advance directly to the semifinals of the Louis Vuitton Cup and the loser would sail a consolation round against Artemis.
So it's no wonder that the "Herald" compares such an elimination series with the most American of all comic characters: Mickey Mouse.
But the New Zealanders are also frustrated because they were the first to have a boat in the water. "We won the Boatbuilding Cup. And twice," joked Cookson. They were also the first to master foiling and believe they have gained a valuable knowledge and design advantage that they will not give up at any price. And this is just one of the reasons why things are currently getting busy behind the scenes.
The teams and the America's Cup Race Management are negotiating changes to the regatta protocol, such as flexible start times, which will be necessary due to the reduction in the maximum permitted wind force. But it is also about changes to the class rules for safety modifications to the boats, which can only be agreed unanimously. And that's where the Kiwis get in the way. Not only because of their design expertise, but also because changes cost money, which they are probably short of by now. They are dependent on sponsors and government support, not billionaires like all the other teams. "We can't just snap our fingers and call the boss," said Dalton in the New York Times. "It's hard, really hard."
They had reluctantly agreed to the reduction of the recommended maximum wind limit for safety reasons, which was "not the end of the world", said Dalton. However, Team New Zealand will veto a change to the class rules because they fear a distortion of competition. "If people tweak the rules and change the boats, someone will know how to use this to their advantage."
Russell Green, Team New Zealand's rules expert, puts it this way: "It's scary when, after years of planning, it turns out that the goalposts are being moved long after the design decisions have been made in the expected windy conditions of San Francisco."
All in all, this is not a pleasant situation for the organisers, who had made grandiose promises and are now in need of an explanation. At the moment, they can't think of anything better to do than disseminate unscripted videos of the training session on Facebook, publish favourable reports in obscure media or issue a press release about the Sting concert in the America's Cup pavilion. There are also rumblings from the political arena: Jane Sullivan, spokesperson for the America's Cup Project of the City of San Francisco, told the Times that the city should benefit from the Cup, but that fundraising is difficult because sailing is not popular in the USA and because the AC72 cats polarise opinion.
Aaron Peskin, a former city councillor who was a Internet campaign started to put pressure on Oracle's owner Larry Ellison to personally pay the costs incurred by the city as a result of the Cup, even quipped: "Other wealthy philanthropists are not interested in donating money to the hobby of the third richest American, who is down to his last 40 billion." And city councillor John Avalos makes another assumption: "Larry Ellison has made the event so big that it's hard to put teams together for it. Maybe that will lead to him winning without a fight."
