One World man caught with designs on another

By JULIE ASH

Former Team New Zealand designer Laurie Davidson has been caught observing the launch of a rival America's Cup yacht through binoculars - allegedly a breach of Cup protocol.

Davidson, who works for the Seattle based OneWorld Challenge, was seen observing Oracle Racing's new yacht, USA71, at its official launch in Auckland yesterday.

Oracle says the use of binoculars could be a breach of the protocol.

Oracle spotted Davidson opposite their Viaduct base, which suggested he had walked from the OneWorld base, close to Oracle's on Halsey St, around the waterfront.

Although the new yacht was covered by a long grey skirt - to keep hull and keel designs secret - Oracle say Davidson had his binoculars pointed in their direction.

As soon as Oracle noticed a rival syndicate designer was watching, they sent team member Chris Todter to investigate.

Todter said he approached Davidson and asked him what he thought of Oracle's new boat.

According to Todter, Davidson replied: "It looks very good to me, very interesting."

Davidson then left.

OneWorld Challenge, who already have their two new Cup boats in Auckland, would only say that Davidson was outside when the boat was being launched.

The use of binoculars is a "grey" area in the America's Cup protocol, which aims to allow challengers and the defender to conduct tests in private and limit opportunities to gain information about other teams.

The protocol says visual observation from ashore of another syndicate's yacht is permitted provided it is not intended to gather design and performance information.

Visual observation is largely unavoidable with the proximity of bases at the Viaduct.

But Oracle believe Davidson was out of line.

"What was Laurie Davidson, OneWorld's principal designer, doing with his binoculars looking at Oracle Racing's new boat, if he was not trying to gather design and performance information - which is not permitted under the America's Cup protocol?" an Oracle spokesperson asked.

The syndicate will discuss the incident further today and examine whether it is a breach of protocol.

Neither OneWorld Challenge nor Laurie Davidson could be contacted for comment last night.

OneWorld Challenge are already before the America's Cup arbitration panel, accused of obtaining some of Team New Zealand's most sensitive design secrets.

Davidson, the former lead designer for Team New Zealand, is among those accused of passing on Team New Zealand's design secrets.

He is accused of holding measurement certificates for the successful black boats in 2000 and an album of photographs showing New Zealand models during tank testing.

The world renowned designer, now in his 70s, has said he did not take designs and had made no use of design documents he has been accused of giving to OneWorld.

He said he had no need to steal designs because he could reproduce his Team New Zealand line drawings from memory, to within centimetres.

The panel will not issue any decisions on disputes until it has a guarantee it will not be sued.