Gary Wright, managing director of the Seattle-based America's Cup syndicate 'One World', has now commented on the points deduction for his team by the AC arbitration panel.
He considers the deduction of one point after the first two so-called round robin rounds (where everyone sails against everyone else, with a first and second leg) on 1 November to be a fair and serious punishment.
"Every point counts," Wright told the New Zealand Herald newspaper. Ultimately, this type of sanction is even worse than a fine. In fact, a fine would probably have been laughed off by the multi-million syndicate. "The points deduction could even cost us our participation in the Double Chance Group," said Wright, looking darkly into the future.
The advantage of this group, into which the best four teams after the round robin rounds enter: Whoever loses here gets a second chance in the lower table of the Louis Vuitton Cup. However, experts agree that the One World team, which is one of the favourites, should be so well placed at the end of the round robin rounds that the points deduction will not have a major impact on the rest of the regatta.
In the end, Wright will even be happy about the favourable outcome of the affair. Because it could have been much worse. An exclusion from the regattas was certainly within the realms of possibility. However, the five retired judges (two New Zealanders, two Europeans, one Australian) took a positive view of the fact that One World had voluntarily brought the case before the arbitration tribunal.
The reason for the points deduction was the conflict over the transfer of opposing design information that had been smouldering for almost a year. The Seattle Syndicate, for which many New Zealand Cup winners from 2000 work, admitted to holding design plans from Team New Zealand and two other opposing teams.
The information came to One World unintentionally, was not very useful and was also not used, the Americans defended themselves after the case was made public by the statements of former One World and Team New Zealand employee Sean Reeves. Reeves is currently testifying before a civil court in Seattle. He is accused by One World of offering secret design data to various teams.
