I'm suddenly feeling that Oracle is toast after reading some of those jury statements about ineffectual leadership/processes/etc...

If only ETNZ fans weren't completely intolerable then I could cheer for the challenger.

Yep, except that Oracle's #1 wing trimmer just got tossed...

Sing it with me:

"The wheels on the bus go falling off, falling off, falling off. The wheels on the bus go falling off, now we're heading (back) Down Under..."

And this, kids, is why you always protest anything you can at this level. Who cares what people think of you later?

Mike

I must have missed something while I was in Dubai. Last I heard, the "Issue" was about 5lbs. and a center post that was 7mm too long...on one of Oracle's AC45 boats?

And for that, they are going to be penalized two points, in the AC 72 Regatta??

Or am I mixing two completely different infractions together?

You've got the gist of it.

ETNZ claims that this change resulted in something like a 15% better pointing ability and an 8% tighter jib luff or other such nonsense.

It's not (ever) about who's right or wrong, it's about what you can prove in court...

Mike

Statement from Oracle

more here.

and here.

RBYAC results after 6 races.

I wonder if there is a path for appeal or was this absolute?

The decision of a properly constituted international jury cannot be appealed. See RRS 70.5.

There might be further penalties yet to come. When a jury imposes a penalty under Rule 69, it must promptly report doing so to the national authority (and in this case, ISAF). US Sailing and ISAF may take further action against the penalized sailors.

Regards,
Eric

There is a clause in the cup rules that gives the jury the ability to penalize for conduct that tarnishes the image of the cup. This was ironically put in place by Oracle to keep Grant Dalton (ETNZ) from publicly talking badly about the cup as he was prone to do in the past. ETNZ's protest argued that the modifications to the AC45 by Oracle was negative publicity and that allowed the penalty to carry beyond the withdrawal Oracle had already made from all previous AC45 events. That's why the penalty has carried over to the 72s.

Think L.E. knew? Think he's PISSED?

RBYAC Race 5 and 6

Forgot to post this notice earlier.
JN116

As always, Richard Gladwell

None of the sailors affected were US; their respective MNAs have been notified as noted in the jury decision. US Sailing is not involved with this one.

IJ decisions cannot be appealed, but can be subject to a request for redress or request to re-open (I've witnessed a full week of hearings over one incident). I wouldn't expect to see that in this case, but you never know.

I will never, ever accept that no one else knew. There is just no way that that happens because of a trimmer, without the skipper knowing. There's no way it happens to three boats without multiple skippers knowing.

While in some ways, the whole thing has been blown out of proportion (the changes probably didn't matter for performance, and it was a regatta that absolutely didn't matter except for bragging rights); if the jury was going to take the time to get this serious, and use the language that they did ("inconceivable" that no one else knew), they really caved by not seeing this through to the top.

Mike

This is getting beyond "Stupid"!

They should fine LE a bazillion dollars for what ever "improved performance" 5lbs. and 7mm makes to a 45' cat, but what has anything done to boats in the 45' regatta, months ago, got to do with the America's Cup Regatta, btw, held in completely different boats??

And have any of these -tools- measured the two AC 72 boats prior to the start of the AC regatta?

Or are they (again) going to wait until it's over?

Yet they wonder why nobody watches this crap....