Nothing really new in the West: the crucial issue in the Cup continues to revolve around the rudders of the AC72 cats, which, according to class regulations, are not allowed to have trim tabs that can be adjusted while sailing. It is also about enlarging them, allegedly to increase the safety of the boats when foiling. Oracle is said to have been testing these larger and movable "elevators" since March, two months before the fatal capsize of Artemis, so the safety argument hardly seems tenable. And incidentally, the tussle is also about the placement of additional ballast, which is also intended to make the boats more stable.
After the Italians ("What is happening here is almost a scandal," said spokesman Francesco Longanesi-Cattani), Team New Zealand has now come forward with a statement saying that they intend to protest to the international jury because regatta director Iain Murray has exceeded his authority. He wants to use the 37 safety regulations that he submitted to the Coast Guard for the regatta authorisation to push through a change to the class rules for the new design of the oars, which according to the protocol requires the consent of all participants, but which has not been obtained.
The New Zealanders and the Italians, who trained together in advance and also developed the foiling technique on their AC72s, agree with all other measures that increase the safety of the sailors. Only the change to the class rule (for the introduction of the movable trim tabs) was aimed at sailing performance and unnecessary to ensure safety. They have designed their boats for the smaller, fixed winglets and are coping brilliantly with them. "We are confident that the jury will clarify the matter so that we can start racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup on 7 July, whatever the decision," says Grant "Old Grumpy" Dalton, the team boss of the New Zealanders, in an almost conciliatory tone. Perhaps also because even race director John Craig admits that Luna Rossa and Team New Zealand will use the ghost races in the absence of Artemis in July for "training among friends".
There is mockery from the defenders' corner: "LOL, this is my 11th Cup in a row and ... someone always starts a fight at five to twelve," said Tom Ehman, vice-commodore of the Golden Gate Yacht Club, on Facebook. This is the club that Ellison saved from bankruptcy and for which Oracle Team USA officially defends the Cup. "But after the bluff, the bluster and the threatening behaviour, there is always a solution. This storm in a teacup will blow over just like the previous ones: the winged keel (1983), the plastic boat (1987) ..., the three-boat semifinal (1995), Young America's tall tales (2000), Team NZL's "Hula" (2003) ... and Alinghi's hull-deforming rig (2007)." And Oracle CEO Russell Coutts, who praised his team's two-boat training programme that nobody else can afford, told the San Francisco Chronicle rather smugly that Kiwis and Italians only bother the jury "to force us into the workshop for a week to rebuild the rudders. That's the only reason."
Hick and Hack: So really nothing new in the West.
