Fisher's View: America's Cup Insight

9:28 PM Sun 7 Feb 2010 GMT

'Bob Fisher' Daniel Forster

Bob Fisher previews the 33rd America's Cup: As the new day is yet to dawn for the start of the 33rd America's Cup, the battle of the handbags continues bilo-a-bilo. It goes on at every level and from every direction. Those of on the outside are having the greatest difficulty in discerning between lies, half-truths and facts, but the latter is the most difficult to ascertain.

The one thing that is certain is that the two boats have satisfied the measurers, but with less than 24 hours to the scheduled start the suspicious sniping continues. Alinghi still alleges that the wing rig of USA does not constitute a 'sloop', as described in the GGYC challenge. The threat is that if a jib is not hoisted at any time when racing, a protest will be lodged by the Swiss. No one has ever before suggested that a sloop ceases to satisfy the description when its jib is dropped.

Meanwhile, the matter of 'constructed in country' of the yacht club continues to hang over the event like the Sword of Damocles and high on the list are the 3DL sails of Alinghi 5. There is precedent for the BMW Oracle argument as the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron syndicate was reminded.

It was not until May 20th 1965, when the Commodore of the NYYC issued the following memorandum, that would-be challengers throughout the world would know what the 1958 and 1962 resolutions were: 'The March 27, 1958, resolution construed the word 'constructed' to mean 'designed and built'; and the December 7, 1962, resolution stated that the word 'design' includes the use of a design facility such as a towing tank, and that the word 'built' includes components, fittings and sails.' It continued: 'The interpretive resolutions were clear confirmation of the principle of this competition and did not in any way introduce a new concept.' The memorandum was signed by Chauncey Stillman, the Commodore of the NYYC.

Both boats were on the water with under 24 hours to go. Alinghi went for a short trial sail while USA's was more prolonged. It was an ebullient owner who stepped from USA. He was clearly delighted with the boat's performance in a variety of breezes, but woulod not commit to whether he would be aboard for the first race. 'We are weight sensitive,' he said, 'if it is light we need to keep off all unnecessary weight and that would mean both Russell [Coutts] and I being dropped from the crew. But if there's more wind (by which he subsequently revealed would be more than seven knots), both of us will sail and maybe Jimmy [Spithill] will even let me drive some of the time.'

Ernesto Bertarelli, will of course, be steering his Alinghi 5, with French ace, Loick Peyron riding shotgun.
February on the east coast of Spain is a chilly place to go sailing and both teams have their preferred sportswear providers. One Alinghi crewman told me: 'I wear everything I have been issued; it's not just the temperature (around 7?C), but the wind chill factor in 25 knots of apparent wind. Think on. The sailors' life is not a bowl of cherries.

None of the 600 media gathered here can wait to see what happens in the first race, but it is certain that the smile will be removed from the faces of one team. The only hope that neither boat breaks down although betting that this may happen shows a 30% possibility. But at least the handbag fighting will have stopped awhile.

by Bob Fisher

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