Team NZ damage revealed
Skulduggery and spying are alive and well in the America’s Cup, and so too apparently is a nasty feud between Team New Zealand and the regatta’s organising authority.
In a statement explaining changes to the rules governing the extremely technical daggerboards that help propel the new generation of wing- sailed, foiling catamarans, the America’s Cup Event Authority took the highly unusual step of informing the world that Team New Zealand damaged two of its daggerboards shortly after it began testing its new boat in Auckland last month.
The statement gives the options for how the Kiwis can repair or replace the daggerboards while pointing out that teams can’t correct a design or construction flaw in repairing damaged daggerboards.
Kiwi Russell Coutts, who is both CEO of the event authority and of two- time defending America’s Cup champion Oracle Team USA, posted the statement on his Facebook page.
Coutts has been at odds with Team New Zealand CEO Grant Dalton in recent years, and the Kiwis are believed to have won a case against ACEA before a secret arbitration panel that could result in a multimillion dollar award.
So how would ACEA know about the Kiwis’ damaged daggerboards?
“We have been watched very closely by the Oracle SoftBank spies every minute we have been on the water and their vigilance makes me think we built a very good racing machine,” Dalton said in a story on Team New Zealand’s website.
Teams are only permitted to build two pairs of daggerboards for their 50ft catamarans. Most teams have elected to build one pair geared towards performing well in heavier winds and one pair for lighter conditions. When the cats hit a certain speed, their hulls rise out of the water on the daggerboards — or foils — which reduces drag and increases speed.
Late last year, a majority of teams voted to amend the protocol to allow up to two identical spare boards to be built, although they can only be used if the race boards are damaged unintentionally.
Team New Zealand was the only team to oppose the change.
“Ironically, it appears that on the second day of sailing with their new America’s Cup Class boat this year, Emirates Team New Zealand significantly damaged one of their race boards and immediately also took the second board out of use which did not appear to be damaged,” the ACEA said. “Neither board has reappeared on their boat in Auckland.”
In a statement Team New Zealand said, “Yes we damaged t wo of our race daggerboards on their second and third days of sailing, and are sailing with earlier generation development boards whilst the damaged boards are being repaired.”