Couldn’t resist this spoof of yesterday’s event. Today Luna Rossa gained one point because Team New Zealand had a breakdown. This could be an event won by attrition. Whoever has the fewest breakdowns. You can’t win if you don’t finish. I don’t know how to get around that thought.
Team Oracle had it’s share of problems as well with the boat Ben Ainslie was steering breaking a rudder.
Oracle Team USA, the defender in the America’s Cup, could be in serious trouble.
Having already admitted rules violations during the America’s Cup World Series, a warm-up to this year’s regatta, the team has been described by a Cup committee as having made “an intentional effort’’ to circumvent the rules.
And on Tuesday, Oracle’s chief rival directly accused the American team of cheating. “You can’t actually get to any other point than the fact they were cheating,’’ Emirates Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton said in an interview. “I think it’s really serious.’’
Oracle could wind up forfeiting one or more race wins in the best-of-17 America’s Cup finals, or it could be thrown out of the regatta altogether, an international sailing expert said.
A five-member international jury “could dismiss them from the event, which would hand the trophy to the winner of the Louis Vuitton (challengers) Cup,’’ said Bob Fisher, an America’s Cup historian. “Still taking a strong line, they could give the Louis Vuitton Cup winner one or more wins in the America’s Cup finals. It depends on how strongly the jury feels about it.’’
The latest developments add to the troubles of a series plagued by soaring boat costs, a scarcity of challengers, a crash that killed a crew member, intense rules disagreements and one-sided races.
Meanwhile, with the major league baseball season entering the home stretch and the NFL exhibition season in full swing, the Louis Vuitton Cup is attracting scant attention in the Bay Area. The finals begin Saturday between Team New Zealand and Italy’s Luna Rossa Challenge.
Oracle admitted last week its shore members illegally placed weights in the bows of all three of its 45-foot catamarans during the America’s Cup World Series. One of the boats was loaned to a British team.
In a report to regatta director Iain Murray, the America’s Cup measurement committee said, “The modifications appear to be an intentional effort to circumvent the limitations of the 45 class rule.’’
The committee’s report was used as the basis of Murray’s filing a protest to the international jury of the International Sailing Federation. The jury is investigating the violations.
In disclosing the violations on Thursday, Oracle team chief executive Russell Coutts said a team employee, possibly more than one, added the weights without the knowledge of management. He called the placement “a ridiculous mistake’’ because “it didn’t affect the performance.’’
Oracle voluntarily forfeited its wins in four ACWS regattas and its two overall season championships.
In an interview, Dalton disputed Coutts’ contention that the weights didn’t affect the boats’ performance.
“Why would you actually do it, if it didn’t make a difference?’’ Dalton said. Properly placed extra weight does improve the performance of the boat, he said.
“Because of the design (of the 45) you like the weight forward,’’ he said. That’s why “you put one guy really far forward to keep the bow in the water.’’
He called Coutts’ insistence that management didn’t know about the placement of the weights “complete nonsense.’’ He said he felt Oracle was trying to “snow’’ people with its explanations.
“It’s inconceivable,’’ Dalton said, “that a shore crew member woke up one morning and decided it was a good idea — that management would think it was a good idea — that to make the boat faster you would put some weight in the boat, and then you’d come in to work one day and do it.’’
At Team New Zealand, for example, if someone were to add weights or move them around, the team would run tests to see if it would help performance or not, he said. He didn’t buy the idea that rogue employees committed violations on their own.
According to the measurement committee, a five-pound combination of lead and resin was found inside the bow strut on one Oracle boat. Bags of lead of roughly the same weight were found in similar positions on the other two boats.
Dalton said it’s possible that somebody placed several weights in the boats and, in removing them afterward, forgot about the telltale lead and resin. The weights were not discovered during the ACWS because detailed weight testing was not done on the AC45s, all of which were the same design, Murray said last week.
The violations were not discovered until July 26, when the boats were tested in preparation of the upcoming Red Bull Youth America’s Cup. If it hadn’t been for the youth sailing regatta, the violations probably would not have been discovered at all.
Asked last week to explain why it took two weeks after the violations were detected to disclose them, Coutts said, “We had to make sure it actually happened.’’ He did not elaborate.
Coutts was unavailable for comment Tuesday, a team spokesperson said. “We’re not going to be able to comment today,’’ she said.
Dalton steered clear of accusing Coutts personally. “I can only say that there’s a management failure,’’ he said.
Stephen Barclay, the American’s Cup chief executive, and Tom Ehman, the Cup director of external affairs, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Dalton said he didn’t expect the jury to take a long time to reach a decision. “We have absolute faith that the jury will get to the bottom of it,’’ he said.
He likened the use of illegal weights to bicyclists using performance enhancing drugs in the Tour de France.
He was asked why a team would take such a risk in a low-stakes event like the ACWS, far from a pinnacle like the Tour de France. Dalton replied, “I’m the wrong person to ask why. We didn’t do it. That’s a fair question: Why would you cheat? But there is no doubt that they did.’’
The problem with the America’s Cup venue was painfully clear during the challenger racelast Saturday. As the teams approached the leeward gate on San Francisco Bay, leader Luna Rossa Challenge (ITA) chose the right mark and their opponent Artemis Racing (SWE) followed.
This was a must-win race for the Swedes. Lose and they are eliminated. But on San Francisco Bay, with a strong tide flooding, their best tactical option was to follow. For Artemis Racing to have chosen the left mark, that would have taken them straight into the mouth of the current.
“It is the San Francisco Bay playbook,” explained broadcast commentator Ken Read. “(In a flood tide), you have to play the tidal cone behind Alcatraz Island, and then split to the left hand side for relief along the shore. It doesn’t make for a lot of passing lanes when you’re behind because, quite frankly, the playbook is in place on the Bay every single day.”
Another problem for the trailing boat has been the race course boundaries. With a narrow course, getting leverage on the leader is limited. But with the tidal impact, the natural boundaries are as real as the course boundaries.
“These tight race courses with the boundaries take away a lot of options for the guy behind,” said Read, “but given the impact of the current, I’m not sure you can make them wider.”
So what will the tide be doing this weekend when the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger finalsbegin between Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Ross Challenge? With two races a day on Saturday and Sunday between 1300-1500 PDT, there is a light ebb predicted.
This reversal, in both strength and direction, could make for a more interesting race. Oh gosh, we hope so.
Anyone who sails has been aware and wondering about this since san francisco was chosen as the venue; particularly in a match race scenario.
A previously confidential report by the Chairman of the Measurement Committee reveals that according to an internal inquiry by Oracle Team USA, one member of their sailing crew was involved along with three members of the team Shore crew in the AC45 Measurement incident which broke late last week.
The incident relates to the finding on July 26, that a builder supplied part of three AC45’s managed by America’s Cup Defenders Oracle Team USA, had been tampered with, and had over 2kgs of ballast added to it.
The discovery was made by boatbuilders working for America’s Cup Regatta Management (ACRM).
The amount of additional weight added is miniscule, and it is equally hard to understand why it would be located forward in the boat, however the point is that it was a breech of the class rules for the AC45 – which is a one design manufacturer supplied class.
The flipside of that situation is the time taken to clear off what should have been a very simple matter of the team identifying the people involved, the circumstances, and providing the Measurer with an explanation – all within 24 hours. Maybe they could have avoided the ignomy of withdrawing from the last four events of the America’s cup World Series, of which Oracle team USA had won three and finished second in the other.
Instead what should have been a minor error, has dragged on for over two weeks and now the investigatory phase of a Rule 69 Hearing has got underway involving a substantial number of the team members, at a time when they should be preparing for the Defence of the America’s Cup.
That situation is not of the Measurer’s or Jury’s making – but of Oracle Team USA. And their fans have got to ask why?
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Members from one of the two Oracle Team USA teams sailing in the America’s Cup World Series Naples 2013 – celebrate their success after the Final Race Day – Gilles Martin-Raget: AmericasCup© Click Here to view large photo
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The AC45s were sailed in nine America’s Cup World Series Regattas in USA, UK and Europe as a preliminary to the America’s Cup Regatta currently being staged in San Francisco.
Late last week August 8, 2013 almost two weeks after the discovery of the use of unmeasured parts, Oracle Team USA issued a media statement saying that they had decided to withdraw from the last four rounds of the America’s Cup World Series after a Protest had been made by the Regatta Director, Iain Murray to the International Jury attaching a report from the Measurement Committee.
Murray’s accompanying note to the Jury requested confidentiality on the matter citing potential damage to the event, however this issue was put into the public domain four days later.
The Oracle Team USA media release did not mention that, while their offer to withdraw had been accepted by the Regatta Director, the matter was still subject to an investigation by the International Jury under the provisions of International Sailing Federation’s Racing Rules, and specifically Rule 69 dealing with Allegations of Gross Misconduct.
That investigation is currently underway in San Francisco, where various members of Oracle Team USA are being interviewed by the International Jury.
Class Measurement infringements often result in serious penalties, including suspension from the sport. The investigation will usually focus not just on those who are directly involved, but anyone who had knowledge of the infringement, and failed to take action.
The Full Report from the Measurement Committee, reporting to Iain Murray, the America’s Cup Regatta director reads:
On July 26, 2013, the Measurement Committee were notified by ACRM boat builders preparing AC45 yachts for the Youth Americas Cup that the forward kingpost belonging to the AC45 yacht Ben Ainslie Racing (boat 9 ex-Aleph) was unusually heavy. The Measurement Committee inspected and weighed this kingpost.
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Oracle Team USA celebrate on the podium in the San Francisco round of the ACWS in October. This was one of four regattas from which the team subsequently withdrew. – Guilain Grenier Oracle Team USA© Click Here to view large photo
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The suspect forward kingpost appeared to have been filled with a resin/ballast slurry of some type. and weighed 3.744 kg.
The Measurement Committee inspected an AC45 kingpost that showed no evidence of having been modified, and found that it weighed 1.390 kg, a weight difference of approximately 2.35 kg
The Measurement Committee could not independently verify that the modified forward kingpost belonged to BAR, other than the fact that the BAR yacht did not have a forward kingpost installed while we were weighing the one reported to have been removed from that yacht.
We did not weigh forward kingposts from the other AC45 yachts belonging to OTUSA. but the ACRM boatbuilders reported to us that they were similarly heavy.
Later that afternoon we met with Richard Slater rules advisor to OTUSA and reported our findings. Mark Turner OTUSA construction manager, called me later that evening and said he would get to the bottom of the situation, but said he had no prior knowledge of it.
Between Friday 26th July and Wednesday July 31 the Measurement Committee chairman had several further conversations with both Mark Turner and Richard Slater about their in-house investigations.
Mark Turner confirmed that he had determined based on interviews that all three AC45 yachts competing in the ACWS and maintained by OTUSA (Boats 4 5 and 9) had been modified in a similar fashion and that boats 4 and 5 were modified by the insertion of bags of lead shot into the kingpost He further reported that he had identified the responsible persons which included a member or members of the shore team charged with the maintenance of the AC45 yachts as well as at least one member of the sailing team.
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The diagram supplied showing the ballast had been located in the forward kingpost –
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Mr Turner also confirmed that to the best of his ability to determine, the modifications to boats 4 (Oracle Team USA Spithill) and 5 (Oracle team USA Coutts) had been made during or prior to the Newport ACWS regatta in June, 2’012.
Ben Ainslie Racing (boat 9) did not compete in an ACWS event while under the control of OTUSA until the first San Francisco regatta in August of 2012, so it is unknown to the Measurement Committee when that boat might have been modified.
The AC45 Class Rule C 1 5 prohibits modification to components of the yacht without permission from the Measurement Committee. Permitted modifications are posted on the official Noticeboard. No request has been made for modifications of this type nor would such permission be granted if it were to be requested.
The AC45 Rule 0.1 6 stipulates that corrector weights. if required, are to be fitted within 0 420m of the chain plate bulkheads. The forward kingpost does not fall within this permitted region.
The modifications appear to be intentional efforts to circumvent the limitations of the AC45 class rule, and are therefore serious in nature.
Nick Nicholson. Chairman
For the Measurement Committee
As a footnote, three of the current International Jury were involved in the apparently simple case, satrting in May 2005, leading to the 32nd America’s cup in Valencia, of determining whether a designer Phil Kaiko was entitled to leave one team (Mascalzone Latino) that had not at that time entered, but was formed and intending to do so. Kaiko wanted to join a Spanish team, El Reto.
The apparently simple case became complicated, eventually being decided in favour of Mascalzone Latino and cost El Reto an eye watering 134,000 Euro in Jury costs alone (of a total cost for the process of 180,000 Euro). In the end El Reto did not progress to the 32nd America’s Cup.
richard gladwell
African Diaspora Maritime Corp. withdrew its motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the America’s Cup.
New York Supreme Court Judge Barbara Kapnick last week ordered the motion permanently withdrawn per an agreement reached between African Diaspora Maritime and the Golden Gate Yacht Club, according to court filings. Neither side had any comment. The order says neither side waives any of its rights to pursue other legal action.
African Diaspora Maritime had asked Kapnick to order a stop to Cup racing while the African American syndicate’s complaint — that the yacht club did not act in good faith in rejecting its application to race against Oracle Team USA for the right to defend the Cup — plays out in court.
Kapnick ruled against African Diaspora Maritime in January. The Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court breathed new life into the 1-1/2-year-old allegations June 25 when it upheld Kapnick’s dismissal of two counts against the yacht club — breach of trust and breach of fiduciary duty by self-dealing — but said there was an enforceable contract between the yacht club and African Diaspora Maritime and enough grist for the lower court to consider whether the yacht club acted in bad faith in its review of African Diaspora Maritime’s application. That complaint remains active. Thanks to Trade Only.
This is an action filed by Charles Kithcart against the Golden Gate Yacht Club, which had disqualified him and his organization from participating in the America’s Cup. Rightly so, the African Diaspora maritime Corp. has no money no crew, no boat and little hope of producing any of the afore mentioned required things.
I can often side with the underdog; however not in this case. For one time I believe that the right decision was made to disqualify the African Diaspora Maritime Corp.
I cannot verify this; but non-the-less amusing. Is there a market for such a delicate high maintenance high tech boat?
More on the lead controversy in which oracle has withdrawn from the previous race in the AC45. Another weight around their neck.
Luna Rossa advances to the finals against New Zealand beginning August 17.
Today, Luna Rossa can eliminate Artemis from the Louis Vuitton semi finals and secure their position in the finals against New Zealand. A winner take all race. The finals begin on August 17th.
The details, if you haven’t seen them yet, are as follows: When setting up the AC45s for the RedBull Youth AC, measurers discovered lead hidden inside the kingpost – the dolphin-striker-like post that extends downward from the forward beam – of the BAR boat. Oracle did their own investigation and found that two of their boats were similarly modded. The Jury protested the boats, and Oracle and BAR withdrew from the regattas in question. Coutts says that management knew nothing about it, and while many one-design sailors will question the dodging of responsibility, there is a plausible explanation: Murray raised the minimum weight on the AC45s a couple of times in response to the gradual fattening of boats due to repairs. Teams were supposed to add weight in specific locations, and it seems that OTUSA’s boatbuilding team, possibly in conjunction with some of the sailing team, decided to put the weight in a position more advantageous to performance than inside the dotted lines they were given.
What really happened? We may never know; what we do know is that heads are going to roll thanks to an ISAF Rule 69 hearing…stay tuned.
SAN FRANCISCO — After Italy’s Luna Rossa handily won its third race in the Louis Vuitton Cup semifinals Friday, skipper Max Sirena lashed out against Oracle Team USA, which is under investigation for hiding lead pellets in the boats it raced in the America’s Cup World Series last year.
“I’m not happy for my sport, not happy for the people watching us and especially because they are always the guys that are playing these games really clean and nice, but in reality they are always the guys that try to cheat,” Sirena said with a strong Italian accent after Friday’s decisive win over Sweden’s Artemis Racing. “I don’t even look at them anymore. I lost my — how do you say in English? — my respect. I lost my respect for
them completely.”
The latest trouble to hit the America’s Cup is an embarrassing humiliation at the least for Oracle Team USA. The team has already forfeited its World Series trophies, but whether the team will be penalized by the international jury investigating the matter, or whether the America’s Cup next month will be affected, remains to be seen.
Russell Coutts, CEO of Oracle Team USA, acknowledged Friday that the infraction is “serious,” even though it occurred in 45-foot catamarans during four races in the ACWS last year.
The infraction was a “mistake” committed by unnamed workers without the knowledge of the team’s management or skippers, Coutts said. When the problem was brought to the team’s attention, the team immediately forfeited its titles.
“We don’t condone breaking the rules,” Coutts said. “We had a policy in place. That policy wasn’t followed.”
Coutts said this incident is nothing if not “stupidity,” because adding “lead shot” inside the front “king posts” didn’t help the overall performance of the boat.
“It’s pretty obvious it’s not designers that were involved,” he said. “If you had designer input, they would have told you not to do it. It’s actually going to make the boat go slightly slower.”
The extra weight was discovered by a boat builder preparing one of the AC45s for the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup next month. After America’s Cup measurement committee members inspected it, they concluded that “the modifications appear to be intentional efforts” to circumvent the class rules “and are therefore serious in nature.” The three AC45s in question were sailed by Oracle, as well as Ben Ainslie Racing.
Ainslie, an Olympic gold medalist who borrowed an Oracle boat to sail for Britain in the ACWS last summer, and Emirates Team New Zealand issued comments Friday.
“As skipper of the boat I had no knowledge whatsoever that the boat was being raced out of measurement,” Ainslie said in a statement. “I am deeply disappointed by this incident and will do all I can to assist the relevant parties in any further investigations.”
Grant Dalton, managing director of the New Zealand team, said he was “stunned” by the revelations.
“I find it difficult to believe that what we learned last night actually happened at the top level of our sport,” Dalton said.
The only team making light of the news was Iain Percy, skipper of Sweden’s Artemis Racing. He said he was so busy preparing for Friday’s race against Luna Rossa that he barely had a chance to focus on Oracle’s troubles, except to “have a chuckle, feel sorry for my mates across the way then get on with the race today.”
The revelations overshadowed Race 3 of the best-of-seven Louis Vuitton Cup semifinals between Luna Rossa and Artemis Racing. On Friday both teams sailed their best races, with each improving its tactics and speed. Luna Rossa had a perfect start, hydrofoiled well through its downwind turns and beat Artemis by 1 minute, 18 seconds.
The teams face each other at 1:15 p.m. Saturday. If the Italians win, the Swedes will be eliminated and Luna Rossa will advance to the Louis Vuitton finals against New Zealand.
By Therese Poletti, MarketWatch
Oracle Team USA passes the Golden Gate Bridge while training for September’s America’s Cup regatta on Aug. 7.
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — In February 2010, a jubilant Larry Ellison and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom stood together at City Hall to celebrate Ellison’s team winning the coveted America’s Cup, the oldest trophy in sailing.
Ellison, co-founder and chief executive of Oracle Corp. ORCL +0.24% , predicted — if he and his team were to pick San Francisco as host for the next America’s Cup — that the races would bring over $1 billion in revenue to the city, which was then still hurting from the Great Recession, about three times the economic windfall of the Super Bowl, which is coming to the Bay Area in 2016.
The current regatta, with three teams racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup, began in July with round robins, and continues with semifinals now until Aug. 30. The winner goes to the finals, which start Sept. 7, against the defending champion, Team Oracle USA. The final races could run until Sept. 21, if necessary. With so many months of sailing, the city would benefit from the visiting teams and spectators, with an estimated 2 million visitors spending money here on lodging, food, and sites.
In addition, the beauty of San Francisco Bay and its late afternoon high winds would lend itself to picture-perfect, made-for-TV races. The races of the huge colorful catamarans are taking place far closer to shore, as opposed to the America’s Cups of the past that typically take place in the ocean, far from most spectators.
Italy’s Luna Rossa Challenge (L) and Sweden’s Artemis Racing (R) face off at the start of a semifinals match on Aug. 7.
But so far, the America’s Cup is shaping up to be less of an economic boon than predicted. What’s more, the cup has been a sporting disappointment, an event fraught with fighting, lawsuits, accidents and the tragic death of a well-regarded British sailor, Andrew ”Bart” Simpson in May, who was pinned under the Artemis Racing team’s capsized catamaran, during practice races.
From the beginning, the trials set the tone.On July 7 Emirates Team New Zealand sailed the course alone, and Italy’s Luna Rossa sat out in protest, while an international jury was deciding whether to enforce new safety rules imposed by the regatta director after the tragedy.
Leading up to the finals in September, the semifinals have begun this month and plenty of tickets are still available to watch from the various spectator venues, at different price ranges, from $35 up to tens of thousands for a yacht berth. Local media has had a field day, where the alternative paper, SFWeekly, has called it a “fiasco” and in February, city supervisor John Avalos told the paper that the city’s Board of Supervisors “were f-ing played,” by the America’s Cup organizing committee.
What went wrong? Is this America’s Cup an example of too much money and too much technology? The races feature the fastest boats yet, with 72-foot-long hulls, and masts — some made of expensive carbon fiber — about 131 feet high, with the average price tag to build them about $100 million a boat.
These massive catamarans are also tech-laden, and at least in Oracle Team USA’s case, powered with specially designed software, a mesh network of sensors, on-board computers, GPS, and a WiFi network.
Beyonce’s new short hairdo that she posted on Instagram set the online world on fire. Her new look might prevent some hair-related accidents.
One of the biggest issues most frequently cited in the ho-hum races so far, is the fact that there are only four teams, or syndicates.
“Historically, you would have expected more than 10,” said Sean Randolph, president and CEO of BayArea Council Economic Institute, which co-authored one of the big economic impact studies of the America’s Cup. “Ten to 12 would have been more of a normal size. You have fewer boats, and they are spending less.”
The four teams are all well-heeled and spent years getting sponsorship or are funded by billionaires like the defender Ellison. For example, Sweden’s Artemis Racing is chaired by Torbjörn Törnqvist, co-founder of the trading firm Gunvor Group.
“Timing was one factor,” Randolf said, adding that the economic recession came when many teams would have been starting to make plans to enter. “The other is that these are extremely expensive boats to build and operate, compared to the traditional model haul boats. The tech is exotic, they are fantastic, but they are very expensive to build, operate and maintain.”
Current estimates by the BayArea Council now predict that the America’s Cup teams, visiting tourists, spectators and other factors will bring about $900 million in revenue versus $1.4 billion previously forecast. But the city has to pay for police and transportation costs. A fundraising effort has already raised $16 million to help cover the city’s cost.
In 2011, Aaron Peskin, the former president of the city’s board of supervisors, sued the board of supervisors to pressure for an environmental review of the sites being used. A settlement was reached in 2012, and one result was that the city dropped its long-term leases of nine city piers to the America’s Cup organizers. Peskin also created a petition on Causes.com, asking for Ellison to cough up the funds the city would be need to cover police and transportation costs.
“The good news is that because no one is actually showing up, their costs are going down,” said Peskin, who lives on Telegraph Hill where he has a view of the festivities down at Pier 27. “This whole thing was predicated on somewhere between 12 and 15 teams from around the world.. It turned out to be three and Oracle, which is as exciting as watching paint dry.”
A few weeks ago, Avalos called up Peskin and asked him to go outside and see how many people were attending a race. “I went out there with some binoculars,” he said. “I said, ‘Do you want me to count them for you?’ There were maybe 100 people.”
Jane Sullivan, a spokeswoman for the city at the America’s Cup, said that as attendance projections have fallen to about 2 million visitors to the cup, versus 2.9 million previously, so have the city’s costs, originally estimated at $32 million. “We see the fundraising and the city’s costs getting very close together,” she said. In general, she said “we are very pleased that the city is filled with visitors.” She added that the city has done major improvements, just like many do getting ready for a big party, which will remain after the cup is over.
“The view of the city that is being beamed around the world, as an ad for San Francisco, you could not ask for anything better,” Sullivan said. “That is almost un-quantifiable.”
As the semifinals get started this month, economist Randolf and some of his researchers will interview visitors to get a sense of how much they are spending in the city, how long they are staying and other data.
“It’s still very much in play. I would sum it up we know the economic impact will be less than it was originally projected,” he said. Is the America’s Cup going to be a billionaire’s bust? “It’s too early to go there,” Randolph cautioned. “It’s quite correct to point to the things that haven’t gone as expected.”
That may turn out to be the understatement of the year, but it’s not over until the fastest boat wins.
