OneWorld's penalty of a point 'severe'

By HELEN TUNNAH

OneWorld Challenge chief executive Gary Wright says the one-point penalty imposed on his America's Cup team for having other syndicate's design secrets is severe.

The point may be the difference between the team having two lives going into quarter-final racing, or facing sudden death duels on the water.

OneWorld was penalised one competition point by the America's Cup Arbitration Panel, which ruled possessing design information for Team New Zealand, Prada of Italy and the former syndicate America True, broke cup rules.

OneWorld's assertions that the information was not used in their own design processes was accepted by the panel.

A one-point penalty imposed on Team Dennis Conner in the semi-finals of the challengers' series in the last cup was enough to knock Stars and Stripes out of the contest.

Team Dennis Conner and Prada had finished the semi-finals with seven wins each from 10 races, but the Italians made it through to the Louis Vuitton finals against AmericaOne because Conner's team had been docked a point for using an illegal rudder.

Prada went on to challenge Team NZ for the cup.

Team NZ head Tom Schnackenberg says the severity of the point penalty awarded against OneWorld will only become clear after the first two round robins.

The Louis Vuitton challenger series, which starts on October 1, has a completely new format to that used in the 1999-2000 series.

This year, wins in the two round robins will be worth one point, with the nine challengers racing each other once in each series.

At the end of the two round robins, the top eight teams qualify for the quarter-finals, but the top four teams will have a huge advantage over the bottom four teams.

Teams one to four will pair off for quarter-final racing, over a best of seven series. The two winners automatically qualify for the semi-finals. The two losers get a second life, and will go to a repechage round.

For the teams ranked five to eight, the quarter-finals involve knockout racing.

They also pair off for a best of seven series, after which the two losers are eliminated. The winners are drawn against the losers from the top section in the repechage, another best of seven series, with the two winners progressing to the semi-finals.

Although complicated, the new format was designed to ensure teams were ready to race from day one, providing an advantage for the best-prepared - perhaps best-funded - syndicates.

Gary Wright told the Herald he thought the one-point penalty imposed by the panel was severe enough, and more punishing than a monetary fine.

"Every point counts. For most teams, fines are probably easier to pay than penalties.

"We'll give it our best shot to be in the top four [but] we don't have expectations of just automatically being there.

"That point could be the difference."