America's Cup: "Lunar eclipse": Luna Rossa goes out

Patrizio Bertelli did not hesitate for long. As announced, the passionate Italian Cup chaser is withdrawing his team from the 35th America's Cup. The Prada patriarch is outraged by the behaviour of the US defenders, who enforced a change of class with a simple majority of the challengers in the current 35th Cup cycle and thus violated several Cup rules in Bertelli's eyes.

After a decade and a half of involvement, the Italian Luna Rossa Challenge is withdrawing from the America's Cup for the time being. Bertelli considers the class change implemented by the defenders on 1 April from the originally planned AC62 catamarans to smaller catamarans with a length of between 45 and 50 feet, which has yet to be determined, to be unacceptable. The defending champion, USA, had pushed through the class change with the approval of only three of the five challengers.

Team Luna Rossa accuses the defenders of bending the Cup protocol and recalls that originally the agreement of all challengers was required for such drastic rule changes as the class change in the current competition. The Italians also criticise the fact that they have no means of appealing to a Cup appeals committee, which is only now in the process of being constituted.

Bertelli said in a statement from the Luna Rossa Challenge: "I would like to thank my team for their hard work. Unfortunately, their efforts have not been rewarded by this unprecedented manoeuvre in the history of the America's Cup." Bertelli, whose team was already well advanced in the design process for the originally planned AC62 catamarans and is considered to be solidly financed, does not want to accept the disadvantages of a subsequent class rule change and is fighting back with his team's radical withdrawal.

Bertelli's statement continues: "In sport, as in life, you can't always make one compromise after another. Some decisions are painful, but they have to be made because they are the only way to make everyone aware of the drifting of a system and create a basis for the future: Respect and legality and sportsmanship." The controversial Cup defenders are promoting the smaller catamarans that have been decided on, citing cost reductions and the hope of more participants. They have now lost one of them halfway through the 35th Cup duel: Bertelli is calling it a day for the time being after 15 years of chasing the Cup.