America's Cup: Late rule change to limit measurement protests

Emirates Team New Zealand against Land Rover BAR (GBR). Photo / Photosport

Another late America's Cup rule change will limit the number of measurement protests teams have up their sleeve.

The amendment to rule 17 in the rules of racing was approved by World Sailing after a long, drawn-out negotiation among the teams. The new rule outlines the process around measurement protests if a team claims one of their opponents is in breach of the design rules, and how they are resolved.

Under the rule, teams will have only one opportunity in each stage of the regatta - the qualifiers, challenger semifinals, challenger final and America's Cup match - to make a "claim of non-compliance" against another team. If the committee finds in the complainant's favour, they will get their one protest back.

If the rule seems restrictive, it is understood to be an improvement on the original drafting, which allowed teams just one protest for the entire regatta.

But some have still raised concerns about the limitations imposed on measurement protests, fearing the rule may hand Oracle Team USA "a licence to cheat" in the Cup match.

America's Cup chief umpire Richard Slater has rebuffed those concerns, saying teams have other ways of bringing potential compliance issues to the attention of the measurers.

"There is a tradition in the America's Cup where most teams will start this process not by protesting non-compliance, but expressing their 'disappointment, desire, concerns' to the measurement committee, and in my experience the measurement committee will then go and check every boat for that concern," said Slater.

Iain Murray, the regatta director and head of America's Cup Race Management, which operates independently of the Russell Coutts-led Events Authority, said all teams are under constant surveillance of the measurers. The teams must get their boat certified every day before taking to the race course, while there is a measurer on every team chase boat during racing to monitor compliance.

"The measurers get there at 7.30 each morning and they chaperone the boats out of the sheds and check off [all the hardware] that is assembled on the boat. They are with the team when it comes out of the shed, through its launching, through racing, and to the time they return to the shed. Big Brother is watching the whole time and of course we are trying to front foot it so there are no issues."

Emirates Team New Zealand would not comment on the rule changes.