10.15am
America's Cup challenger Alinghi has been testing the so-called 'false hull' appendage that is believed to be one of Team New Zealand's secret weapons.
Although the appendage has only been used on the Swiss team's second boat so far, Alinghi skipper Russell Coutts said today it could easily be transferred to SUI-64, the boat that has dominated racing in the challengers' series.
The concept of using an appendage to effectively lengthen a boat's hull, and thereby increase its potential speed without violating the rules governing hulls, is believed to be one of Team New Zealand's design innovations for this America's Cup regatta.
Team New Zealand, which has kept its boats' hulls completely draped while being towed in and out of the Viaduct Harbour, yesterday sent a letter to organisers of the challengers' regatta saying it believed that Cup rules would not permit challengers to switch boats between the semifinals and final races.
There is speculation that the letter from the America's Cup defenders was an attempt to slow development of a false hull system by other teams. It is thought that Oracle BMW has, like Alinghi, been testing the 'false hull' principle.
Coutts said today that Alinghi's version of the concept could easily be applied to the boat it has used thus far. That would effectively circumvent Team New Zealand's objections over the switching of boats.
The false hulls causing great excitement among America's Cup syndicates were originally considered by Alinghi designers two years ago, but were discounted because of doubts they would be allowed, Coutts said today.
Coutts today said Alinghi, who qualified for the challenger finals yesterday, were working on such an appendage, and it was showing potential.
The idea was basically a way to get around rules which prohibited hollows in hull lines of America's Cup boats, he said.
Taking the appendage idea to its "logical conclusion, or illogical conclusion, depending on which way you look at it" it could be possible to have an appendage of any shape.
"You could have almost, I don't know whether this is possible, sort of a catamaran shape under the boat if you wanted to and call it an appendage. Really, it's part of the hull," Coutts said.
When Alinghi had initially considered the idea they decided, "probably unwisely", that the rules would not allow it.
A few months ago the cup measurers had issued a confidential interpretation to all challenger groups saying the appendage system would be allowed.
Coutts was unsure which syndicate had asked for the interpretation.
"We regard ourselves as being reasonably fortunate because our design team had done a fair bit of thinking about it in the early days," Coutts said.
"But it's been a bit of a rush for us to design it and perhaps get it through some of our testing processes and then get it on to one of our boats.
"Certainly the design we've got we think has got potential and we're out there testing it now."
"When you look at our appendage, to me it looks like part of the hull. If somebody pointed at it and said 'is it a hull or an appendage', I'd say it's a hull, part of the hull," Coutts said.
Referring to Team New Zealand's letter yesterday with their interpretation of the rules about boat use in the challenger finals, Coutts said he was intrigued someone else wanted to choose what boat his team raced.
"We want to get on and race this thing on the water. It seems strange that somebody would try to prevent us from using a boat at this stage with off-the-water antics, but we'll get on with it.
"I guess Team New Zealand have, in some of their rule interpretations, been wrong before plenty of times throughout this regatta, and we're hoping they will be wrong again," Coutts said.
"I think it's actually a different approach this time from Team New Zealand, whereas the Team New Zealand that I was involved in generally tried to steer clear of these rules challenges."
Coutts skippered New Zealand to America's Cup victory in 1995 and 2000.
"The new Team New Zealand seems to have adopted a different approach. We'll just to see whether that approach is ultimately successful," Coutts said.
He recalled comments the late Sir Peter Blake made to the New Zealand team before the 1995 campaign.
"I can remember him giving speeches to the team. He said: 'look we're just going to stay out of all these issues, we're not going to be a litigious challenge. We're going to try to win this event on the water through designing boats better, sailing better'," Coutts said.
If the Team New Zealand interpretation about the use of boats in the challenger series finals was right, it could be quite effective if it meant Alinghi were not able to use their fastest boat.
But in the end it may be that SUI-64, the boat they had used so far, was faster than their other boat SUI-75, he said
"We've done a lot of preparation with our boats. We know our boats a lot better."
"We're still testing our boats and I'm not sure which will be the fastest boat come the challenger final time," Coutts said.
- NZPA, Herald staff
Graphic: Team New Zealand's secret weapon
Full text: the letter from Team New Zealand
(51 pages)
nzherald.co.nz/americascup
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