No finger pointing - but is that yacht really a yacht?

By HELEN TUNNAH

When is a yacht a yacht? Perhaps when it is built. But does "built" mean "fabricated and assembled"? And must it be "put together" - as in joined - rather than in separate bits and pieces?

Lawyers for America's Cup challengers are grappling over such legal definitions in another scrap between syndicates vying to challenge Team New Zealand for yachting's biggest prize.

Five of the syndicates are waiting for the Cup's arbitration panel to decide when built means built - although they might have a long wait, as the panel refuses to give any answers on any disputes until they are guaranteed not to be sued.

Exactly what the issue is about remains unclear, although the syndicates are clearly divided on how they interpret the rules.

Under decades-old America's Cup regulations, a yacht must be built in the country of origin of the challenging syndicate.

That means if a boat is entered by a United States syndicate, it must be built there.

But the syndicates cannot agree exactly when a boat has been built - and even whether it has to be shipped here in one piece.

The America's Cup Protocol says a yacht is built when that yacht, including its hull, surface, deck and appendages, are "fabricated and assembled".

The California syndicate Oracle Racing has written to the arbitration panel to ask what it all means, without revealing if they think any syndicate has broken nationality rules.

Oracle, the Italian syndicate Prada and Le Defi of France are generally like-minded, saying the rules are simple and clear: a yacht is built when it is whole.

Russell Coutts' new syndicate, Team Alinghi of Switzerland, and Seattle's OneWorld Challenge, already in trouble over allegations they have Team New Zealand secrets, disagree.

The French sum up the row as only the French can, giving a language lesson to their English-speaking cousins.

They have told the panel in a written submission that the Collins English Dictionary says "to build something means to make it by joining things together".

"Given the above, a decent respect for reality would lead us to consider a house built, not when the components are merely gathered together in one's front yard, but only once the components are physically joined together to construct the whole."

Quite simply, they say, if all the bits of a yacht are lying around, it cannot be considered a yacht.

Not so, says Alinghi. "Assemble and fabricate" applies only to individual components, which can then be shipped here separately.

A hull, they say, could be built and not attached to the deck for shipping. Likewise, a keel or a rudder need not be attached to the hull.

Curiously, they also argue if a syndicate has brought components here separately, and the panel rules they should not have, it would be silly, and costly, to ask a syndicate to take a boat to pieces, ship it back to the country of origin, reassemble it and bring it back out as one.

Alinghi and One World already have new boats in New Zealand.

nzherald.co.nz/americascup