America's Cup: "This has comedic overtones"

Did they or didn't they? Speculation continues that Cup winners Oracle Team USA may have used a stabilisation system on board their giant catamaran that goes beyond the permitted limits. Skipper James Spithill told CBS reporter Belinda Henley in an interview for the series "60 Minutes": "This talk about a super system on the boat - people are looking for a magic bullet. Unfortunately, it all comes down to hard work."

The 34-year-old Australian told the journalist: "Obviously you were quite misled. There is no Herbie. Herbie is a car that drives around in films. If anyone has it, send me this super stabilisation system and we'll use it next time. It's comical that people think this or come up with such fairy tales. I can't believe people are saying that."

After the Americans' comeback victory in the 34th America's Cup duel, in which Oracle Team USA fended off eight match points in a row and defended the most important trophy in international sailing after a botched start, there had been speculation about the defenders' possibly borderline technological advantages. At the centre of the discussions was a computer module nicknamed "Little Herbie". Several experts had reported that it could have served the US team well on the fringes of legality. However, the Cup measurers had given it the green light because the human (sailor) and the hydraulics driven by his muscle power still stood between the module and the movement of the foils. The Cup defenders had always vehemently denied any automatic re-steering.

James Spithill even made fun of the sceptics' ideas in the interview: "The last I heard, Coutts was eating on the support boat with a remote control. From there he would have remotely controlled the grinders and sailed the boat ... He could do anything. I wish he could have done that. It would have made our lives a lot easier."

Spithill also admitted in the interview that he didn't always tell the truth during the press conferences in San Francisco: "Most of the time, these press conferences are about getting into the opponent's head and playing psychological games. Every time I said that I thought we could still win, it was the truth. When I said we weren't going to give up, it was the truth. But when I said that we would change the boat every night - no, we didn't do that. We made a few changes, but we wanted them (ed.: Emirates Team New Zealand) to think that big things were going to happen to us every night." Spithill's explanations sound logical. Whether they are true or not can hardly be verified in retrospect.