There have been a lot of contentious moments leading up to the America's Cup, but the latest development could completely sink the main event by revoking the Coast Guard permit allowing the boats to race on the Bay.
Still at issue just a day before the event is supposed to kick off are the rudder elevators that control the pitch of the AC72 racing yachts. The elevators cause the boats to rise out of the water and reach higher speeds by reducing drag. Although the rules set by Larry Ellison's Team Oracle at the outset initially discouraged the practice, Emirates Team New Zealand found a loophole and built their AC72 to rise out of the water and hydrofoil. The other three remaining teams, Oracle, Luna Rossa and Artemis followed.
After Artemis crashed their first boat in May, leaving sailor Andrew "Bart" Simpson dead, regatta director Iain Murray proposed 37 new rules and safety regulations including one that allows changes to the surface area of the rudder elevators. Teams New Zealand and Luna Rossa, who shared training and design notes, are appealing the rules to the Cup's five-member international jury, claiming the changes are unnecessary to keeping sailors safe and will upset the competitive balance of the races. (And exploiting a loophole doesn't, apparently?)
Regatta director Iain Murray told the Chronicle today that if the A-Cup jury sides with New Zealand and Luna Rossa when they meet to vote on Monday, he will tell the Coast Guard that the races will be unsafe, at which point they will most likely pull the racing permit and sink the regatta altogether.
The "foiling" practice is reportedly not to blame in either the May incident with Team Artemis or Oracle's pitch-poling back in October. Preliminary races are scheduled to begin this Sunday with a round robin between training partners New Zealand and Luna Rossa.
Update: The America's Cup Event Authority issued a press release late Wednesday afternoon in which Iain Murray clarified some of the issues. Both the New Zealand and Italian boats are up to code and will be able to sail on Sunday, "with their equipment as it is now," he said, "because it already meets the minimum requirements set out in my Safety Rules." He went on: "This is about two teams trying to gain an advantage from changes I’ve implemented to make all of our racing safer.”
Immediately after that press release, the authority issued another notice saying Peroni was the official beer of the event. So, there's that.
