America's Cup technology race heats up Publication: Sports Illustrated
AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) -- The three remaining syndicates in the America's Cup challenger series are researching or testing breakthrough technology developed by defenders Team New Zealand.
Swiss challenger Alinghi has admitted testing and finding potential in the innovative design -- a partial false hull -- that the New Zealanders pioneered and hoped to keep secret until their yacht's January unveiling.
The Oracle team of software billionaire Larry Ellison, meanwhile, issued a statement Tuesday saying reports it had the same technology were "speculative and inaccurate."
Oracle's rivals claim the San Francisco-based team has tried New Zealand's "clip-on" appendage with less success than the Kiwis and Alinghi.
Seattle's OneWorld Challenge said Wednesday it had researched the false hull, hailed in some circles as the largest Cup design breakthrough since Australia II's winged keel, but were "not convinced of its effectiveness."
Team New Zealand did not suggest challengers had copied its design, which it had attempted to shield from rivals, but said it hoped teams had developed the technology legitimately.
"I'd like to think (they found out) just by legitimate means, by looking at us from outside 200 meters when we're sailing and using logic," said New Zealand syndicate head Tom Schnackenberg.
"We would've hoped that nobody would figure out our boats until after the Cup. The reality is that people may well have learned or deduced what we were doing a lot earlier. That's inevitable."
Team New Zealand has reportedly threatened Alinghi with formal action for breaches of America's Cup surveillance regulations. While rival teams regularly follow each other's yachts, they are not allowed to approach within 200 meters during sailing.
Team New Zealand angered challengers this week when it wrote to their management organization questioning the wording of rules which allow challenge teams to change yachts between rounds.
The New Zealand letter suggested the rule does not allow challengers to change yachts between the semifinals and the final beginning Jan. 11.
Alinghi and Oracle both have yachts they haven't used in the challenger series and which they may be developing for use in the final or Cup match.
Schnackenberg said Team New Zealand was alerting the challengers to a rules anomaly.
"It's fun to pull their tails a little bit on this issue," he said. "Really the main thing is to resolve it and get it sorted out."
Alinghi skipper Russell Coutts said the false hull-section his team had developed, by means of a rules loophole, could be fitted to either of its Cup yachts.
He suggested Team New Zealand had evoked the rule on yacht substitution in an attempt to prevent Alinghi and others using their design breakthrough.
"I'm intrigued that somebody else wants to choose what boat we race," Coutts said. "It seems strange somebody would try to prevent us using a boat at this stage with off-the-water antics, but we'll get on with it."
Later Wednesday, Oracle unveiled a radical new kite sail in front of bemused onlookers. Oracle flew the sail brazenly, in view of rivals and hundreds of spectators, while training in six to eight knot winds on Auckland's Hauraki Gulf.
It was not clear whether the syndicate's lack of secrecy meant it is not seriously considering using the sail in Cup racing, or that it believes its rivals would not have time to duplicate the development.
It has been speculated a kite sail could fly on a tether several hundred meters in front of a yacht and that the yacht would be deemed to have finished a race when the sail passes the finish line. Rules opinions were being sought on that question.
The sail is thought to be permitted under America's Cup Class rules but it is not clear whether Oracle has presented it to the Cup's measurement committee for approval.
Original article (Dec 18, 2002): http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/more/news/2002/12/18/americas_cup_ap/