So how do you penalise the defender of the Americas cup when there is only one of them? This is the question that the Americas cup jury has asked of “interested parties” as it would seem they are unsure of what is appropriate.
The jury found against Oracle Team USA during the week, when Luna Rossa file a protest complete with photographic and mathematic evidence that OTUSA was spying within the 200m exclusion zone. A flurry of emails sent by three teams prior to the hearing, including a request by OTUSA to have the jury exclude evidence from Emirates Team New Zealand that showed that OTUSA had employed similar tactics against their AC72 around the same time as Matt Mason was caught by the LR team.
We have heard first hand from some of the sailors that OTUSA also tried to get up close to the LR boat while they were navigating their AC72 in through the Rangitoto Channel, a place where it would be impossible for LR to steer around them as OTUSA claimed they could have done.
If there were multiple syndicates and a defender series, then OTUSA could be penalised point towards that series, just as a challenge found to have breached a rule might be. However this not possible as OTUSA have chosen to run as the sole defender, which has been common practice since the 2000 defence held in Auckland.
So what other measures could be used to penalise the defender?
A monetary fine paid to LR? This would seem unlikely as it is not really a penalty to a syndicate that seemingly has an endless supply of the stuff.
Full disqualification? Again not likely, but would be interesting to create some history with the winner of the Louis Vuitton series being awarded the Americas Cup by default.
So what options does that leave? It will be very interesting to hear what the syndicates put forward.
so the reduction of 5 days is on the sailing WINDOW not sailing total. I’d say this could still have an impact as the second period is nominally 90days long, with 45days allowed within it. That’s one day of maintenance for one day of sailing – that’s what the V5 boats were working on! These AC72 boats are less well understood and sorted, so a couple of bad days sailing can easily knock on to the down-days count on more than a 1:1 ratio, and then you’re running out of runway…..as we’ve seen is the first period! Apart from the capsize a daggerboard broke, a few weeks lost while they bodged one from the Tri, Artemis tow-test broke something in the main beam – these take weeks to fix not days….
That said I would have gone for 5 days training on both boats as a reasonable penalty, but I disagree with Navig8r – this can still impact them IF they have a few bad sessions (in the windy part of the season….), especially if something crops up that needs fixing on BOTH boats (i.e design or engineering error)…
Not sure how $15k was arrived at but I agree – it’s little more than loose change for these guys. 5 days training (not sure if 5 days for both boats 1#1 and #2 or just a total lost between them….) will hurt – remember they were only 8 days into their allowed 30 when they flipped. The meter starts again in Feb, with, I believe, no carry over from the first session (Navig8r can you confirm?) so they are possibly 22 days down compared to a very comfortable looking ETNZ and Prada. Either way, 5 days lost training will hurt as ANY time in the boat before the racing starts is incredibly valuable. So this serves to penalize OTUSA rather than favour Prada, and therefore regardless of who is the Challenger they will gain some benefit from this.
No carry over of sailing days between periods.
Sailing days are:
First sailing period, 1July 2012 to 31 January 2013 – 30 days (only allowed to sail the first boat)
Second sailing period, 1 February 2013 to 1 May 2013 – 45 days per boat, not transferable between boats.
Third sailing period, 1 May 2013 onwards – no restrictions
The OTUSA penalty applies to the second period, and is a reduction in the period time by 5 days. They may not sail either of their AC72′s in the final 5 days of April. They may still sail each boat for 45 days, provided they do so by 26th April 2013.
I doubt this will have any effect at all.
Currently the teams are in the first sailing period with ETNZ the only one that has used, or is likely to use all 30 days.
Team / days used / days remaining
ETNZ / 30 / 0
Luna Rossa / 17 / 13
Artemis / 10 / 20
OTUSA / 8 / 22
Thanks for the update Doodle. But… $15,200? Seriously? That kinda sounds like a joke… That cash will be in the ashtray… And five days off their training time? Big deal really… I don’t know, what does everyone think? Too soft?
From Scuttlebutt Europe: “The jury said that as punishment Oracle’s team returned 10 photos of the Italian boat, fined the team $15,200 and cut five days off the period in which it is allowed to train with its 72-foot catamaran. — Eric Young, San Francisco Business Times”
Definitely penalise Oracle when the actual up starts. They shouldn’t just get off without getting some kind of whip cracking!
Financial won’t hurt OTUSA within the realms that fall short of bankrupting LE, so options within the tournement framework either A) docking them say a 1/2point for the AC itself – so starting with a deficit which levels any gain they might have made against ALL teams and so works regardless of whether Prada progress to become the Challenger (unlilely given they’re a 1-boat campaign), or B) benefiting only the wronged team (Prada) with say extra buttons for headsails, spis or allowing additional sail training days which given the unlikeliness of them Challenging would be a band-aid solution. So, Option A) hurt OTUSA, option B) rub Prada better…..get the big stick out, I say!