Posted on August 13, 2013 at 1:38 pm by Tom FitzGerald in America’s Cup, Emirates Team New Zealand, Grant Dalton,Oracle Racing, Russell Coutts

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.’’