Tale of the tape on rival Cup hulls

By HELEN TUNNAH

A United States naval architect who has compared OneWorld hull designs and those of Team New Zealand's from the last America's Cup says the drawings are not of the same boat.

Robert Perry says the eight line drawings produced for OneWorld by former Team New Zealand principal designer Laurie Davidson do not match NZL60.

"It was clear that no boat in the package was identical to NZL60," Perry said in an affidavit.

He said the one Davidson drawing closest to NZL60 was still "a very different boat" in almost every respect.

His sworn affidavit will be presented by OneWorld Challenge to the America's Cup arbitration panel tomorrow when it hears claims that the Seattle syndicate used other teams' secret design information.

OneWorld has denied the claims, and has assembled affidavits from crew members, including Davidson and billionaire backer Craig McCaw.

Team Dennis Conner and Prada have called for OneWorld to be thrown out of the America's Cup, alleging they obtained and used design secrets from other syndicates, including Team New Zealand and Prada.

They have also accused OneWorld of misleading the arbitration panel at an earlier hearing by not fully disclosing all the material they held.

If OneWorld is disqualified, it will send the Louis Vuitton challenger series into disarray.

The semi-finals, which pit OneWorld against Prada, are due to start on Monday.

OneWorld last year admitted to having some design information from other teams, but said it was not important, was not deliberately acquired and was never used.

The panel accepted this, penalised them one competition point for having design data they should not have had.

Much of the case will focus on an affidavit sworn by OneWorld's former rules adviser Sean Reeves in which he alleges the syndicate knowingly had and used Team New Zealand design plans.

Team New Zealand has previously said the design data OneWorld had was "significant".

They will make designers and crew members available at the two-day panel hearing.

A decision on OneWorld's future is expected on Sunday night or Monday.

Perry, from Seattle, and colleague Ben Souquet were asked by OneWorld to compare the Davidson design package with the NZL60 lines made available by Team New Zealand designers Mike Drummond and Tom Schnackenberg.

The two sets of drawings were of a different scale, and the lines of NZL60 were replotted to match the Davidson scale.

Perry and Souquet selected the hull drawing closest to that of NZL60 and compared the two.

"The hull shape that came the closest to NZL60 was 'standard number three'. We focused on this hull to determine the differences and similarities with NZL60," Perry's affidavit said.

"In almost every respect, standard number three was a very different boat to NZL60."

Davidson has consistently denied Reeves' claims that he worked on the design package while still employed by Team New Zealand, and that it included NZL60's lines.