"The Swiss are in a difficult position," says expert Cutler. "They won't have enough time to install and thoroughly test a fuselage attachment like the one Team New Zealand has. Because if they don't like the concept, they'll have to take it down again and come up with something new."
Next Tuesday, the hulls of the two Americas Cup yachts will come off. Experts already know that Team New Zealand will be competing in the match of matches with a boat that is consistently designed to use the controversial "hula" ("hull appendage"). What the Swiss yacht with the exceptional German sailor Jochen Schümann on board will look like is still unclear.
Immediately after the final of the Louis Vuitton Cup, the red and black yacht disappeared from the hall. "But the changes will not be radical," say team spokespeople. "Retrofitting a hull with a hula that wasn't designed to carry one in the first place can only be a compromise." The team does not reveal how lazy this is, or whether the Swiss are fundamentally opposed to this technology. Or whether the Swiss team's designers have long been working on their own Hula, we will soon find out.
