Team New Zealand yesterday invoked America's Cup rules in a bid to stop leading challengers using yachts that are said to have copied New Zealand's hidden hull design.
The move came immediately after Swiss challenger Alinghi, skippered by Russell Coutts, won a direct passage to the Louis Vuitton challengers' final.
If Team NZ's claim succeeds, it would prevent Alinghi or rival Oracle BMW Racing from bringing out the boats they have been holding in reserve.
The hull adaptation takes the form of a partial false hull, or outer skin, which effectively lengthens the hull so the boats can sail faster.
The design has been hidden under the skirt of at least one of Team NZ's new boats.
But the innovation has been copied by Alinghi and Oracle, Britain's
Daily Telegraph
reported yesterday.
In response, Team NZ have written to the challengers' management warning that the rules for the challenger series conflict with the America's Cup Protocol and that the protocol has precedence.
Under the protocol, they note, it is a "yacht" that wins the semifinals and progresses to the challenger finals rather than a team.
The
Daily Telegraph
quotes Coutts, who helped to write the protocol while still with Team NZ, saying of the false hull: "There isn't a designer in Auckland who wouldn't say, 'That's got to be faster', when they see this development."
His syndicate head, Ernesto Bertarelli, last night asked Team NZ to steer away from formally protesting against the rules clash.
"My wish would be that, given the advantages that Team NZ already has by being able to wait and watch us racing ... that they would confine themselves to making sure they're faster on the water and making sure they keep the competition on the water."
Alinghi, favourites to meet Team NZ in the cup match, and Oracle have been sailing the same boats all regatta, but it is their other boats that may have been modified to match Team NZ's.
No team has had to declare which yacht they will sail in next year's Louis Vuitton finals, so no formal protest has been lodged yet by Team NZ, and it is not certain that one will be.
Team New Zealand's letter drew a strong response from challenger series regatta director Dyer Jones, who said Team NZ were trying to "stick it to the competitors".
"But that's part of the game they play," he added.
In a note to the challengers, Mr Jones explained why he thought Team NZ's interpretation of the rules was wrong. He said that boat substitution between the semifinals and finals was "absolutely" allowed.
He had no idea what was going to happen with the Team NZ letter, but he considered it a "stupid" letter to have sent.
The defenders had already allowed for substitutions as provided for in the conditions for the challenger series, Mr Jones said.
He would continue with the regatta under the conditions signed by the Royal NZ Yacht Squadron, the club Team NZ represent.
"If at some point the squadron decides to refuse entry by somebody, then it would be up to whatever the party is to apply to the arbitration panel for a hearing," Mr Jones said.
The
Daily Telegraph
reports that the completely separate partial hull is counted as an "appendage" under the America's Cup one-design rules.
The America's Cup class rules allow only two movable appendages to the hull, normally the rudder and the adjustable keel fins, but Team NZ designers realised the rules did not limit appendages that did not move. They then decided to suspend an entirely false section off the actual hull.
In theory this could be done under the entire length of the hull but the three America's Cup teams are thought to be concentrating only on the stern at present.
The ruse is legal under rules of the International America's Cup Class, but only if the "false surface" is clear of the hull everywhere except at the centreline attachments.
Tom Schnackenberg, syndicate head and design leader for Team NZ, had hoped to keep the innovation secret until the official unveiling on January 7.
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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