Blog: Protest procedure leaves Alinghi fuming

Alinghi's Hamish Ross (R) and Grant Simmer leave the protest hearing. Photo / Mark Mitchell

When a layday occurs in yachting it generally means a nice quiet, non stress full day.

Well that wasn't the case in Valencia overnight. There was a huge media scrum outside the America's Cup Management offices to hear the result of Team New Zealand's protest against Alinghi after race four.

The jury ended up dismissing the protest saying they were not satisfied that Alinghi broke the America's Cup class rule 31.6 which reads: "Mainsails should be lowered to the deck with out the necessity of going a loft.

In its decision the jury noted it is at the discretion of the Measurement Committee to take any further steps it feels necessary to ensure the yachts are in compliance with the rules.

What was interesting was that the jury's decision was not unanimous which indicated it was not a clear cut case.

While Alinghi's Hamish Ross and Grant Simmer were rip roaring mad they had to go through the whole procedure, Team New Zealand were cool as cucumbers.

Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton said he felt like Paris Hilton coming out jail when he was flanked by the media after the hearing.

Visit Peter Lester's website Full coverage of the America's Cup from nzherald.co.nz/americascup and desktoptv.co.nz