With the four teams unable to reach an agreement while working with two mediators over a couple of thorny issues, Emirates Team New Zealand was preparing to file a protest to the five-member America’s Cup jury.

Team New Zealand CEO Grant Dalton said he will file for a jury verdict. A Luna Rossa spokesman, Francesco Longanesi-Cattani, said his team would file a protest, too.

“What’s happening is just short of a scandal,” Longanesi-Cattani said.

The jury, however, won’t arrive until Wednesday, just four days before the Louis VuittonCup challenger round-robin begins July 7.

According to Dalton, regatta director Iain Murray has overstepped his bounds in implementing rules changes as part of his 37 safety recommendations following the fatal capsize by Artemis Racing on May 9.

“He’s done a really good job, but he’s gotten himself – welcome to America – in a liability scenario,” Dalton said. “He’s worried that he’ll get into a liability scenario (in case of another accident) with his recommendations.”

The key issue is the size of the elevators, the lateral pieces that attach to the rudders and help lift the boats out of the water. New Zealand and Luna Rossa prefer smaller elevators in accordance with existing Cup rules; Oracle and Murray prefer larger, heavier elevators that they say would help keep a boat from capsizing.

“We think he’s gone further than he needed to go,” Dalton said.

Murray acknowledged he was concerned about liability but said his main concern was not to give an advantage to any one side.

If the jury supports Murray’s recommendations, Dalton said he wouldn’t take it to court. By the terms of the America’s Cup protocol, doing so would disqualify any team. He might win in court, but such a ruling might take 10 months.

Another issue still to be decided is over Murray’s recommendation that 100 kilograms be added to the structure of the boats to promote stability. The teams disagree over where the extra weight should be applied, so as not to give one side an advantage.

Oracle Team USA CEO Russell Coutts downplayed the 11th-hour maneuvering. “I’ve never seen a rules issue decide the outcome of a (Cup) race,” he said, and he’s been involved in Cup sailing since 1993.

“These guys love to sit around, argue about minutia,” he said. “They’re not doing it for safety reasons. They want to try to force us to spend a week rebuilding the rudders in the boat shed. That’s the only reason they’re doing it.”