Yachting: Nippon cling to slender hope

Nippon skipper Peter Gilmour returned to winning form on the water yesterday and said he wanted to put the America's Cup rudder furore behind him.

Gilmour gained a win on the water when Asura sailed clear of Le Defi of France to win by just under a minute. But the potential point gained from a disqualification was sorely needed.

Nippon would have had the extra point if Stars & Stripes was fully penalised for having an illegal rudder. However, they were only docked one point themselves.

Nippon's challenge now has just three wins from seven races, and are desperately trying to stay alive in the Louis Vuitton Cup semifinals. The semifinals are being dominated by AmericaOne, comfortably ahead and looking strong with six wins, and Luna Rossa for Prada with five wins.

Most boats have just three races left, but Stars & Stripes has four and could still overtake Luna Rossa or force a sail-off for a semifinal berth.

Stars & Stripes' tactical team and helmsman Ken Read had a shocker yesterday, forced over the start line early by Luna Rossa and never recovering.

Yesterday Stars & Stripes were penalised a point when Nippon successfully protested against them fitting a new Australian-designed rudder, which contravened the America's Cup Protocol, but Dennis Conner's boat was only docked one point.

"If we thought that it was illegal we wouldn't have done it," Conner said.

Gilmour has now decided to let the matter drop.

"Internally we feel the jury erred in their decision," Gilmour said.

"If someone breaks a rule, they get disqualified, you move up.

"You don't protest frivolously, there's a risk/reward relationship there. The signal the jury has given is there's no reward, which is a little strange."

Gilmour labelled Team Dennis Conner's explanation they had misinterpreted the Protocol as "convenient. Go and read the rule book".

On the water, Conner did not think his helmsman's blunder resulted from the off-water pressures, but suggested Read just "goofed up" after a run of good, close starts in the semifinals. Conner said talking too much about the rudder issue put him in a bad mood.

He said the team had tried to get the rudder made in New Zealand, but could not find anyone to do it. They believed an Australian-built rudder would be allowed.

"We were ruled to have made an error of judgment and we got penalised," he said.

"The rules are there and they should be followed. I helped make the rules in a lot of ways. We've seen a lot of changes over the years.

"Does it make a lot of sense, that the things that produce the most speed, probably the sails as those are your engines, and people can buy them anywhere they want.

"I'm not whingeing. It seems a little incongruous. I think you should follow the rules and if you break the rules there should be some recourse, otherwise why would anyone follow the rules.

"It's redundant just to keep going over and over it, it's not helping the event and it's not helping us and it puts me in a bad mood."

America True's chances of reaching the semifinals all but evaporated with their loss to AmericaOne today.

- NZPA