Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

As the America's Cup turns

Mainstream the mainsails!

Just add wall-to-wall American TV and, bingo, professional sailing goes mainstream.
Just add wall-to-wall American TV and, bingo, professional sailing goes mainstream.

When last we looked, so many teams had withdrawn or decided not to compete that America’s Cup was reduced to one-boat races. Remember New Zealand racing against New Zealand to see if New Zealand could bring home the win? Spoiler alert. New Zealand won.

On August 5, the America’s Cup Measurement Committee, in a report to America’s Cup race director Iain Murray, said Oracle Team USA had made “an intentional effort” to circumvent the rules. Or, to put it another way, the way everybody else puts it, Oracle Team USA cheated.

That’s what Grant Dalton, managing director of Emirates Team New Zealand, Oracle’s chief rival, told the AP: “You can’t actually get to any other point than the fact they were cheating.”

The cheat occurred during the America’s Cup World Series (ACWS), a run of races leading up to the America’s Cup regatta. Oracle admitted that illegal weights were placed on three of its boats but explained those evil deeds were done by a “small number of team members,” management had no knowledge, and, anyway, the extra weight didn’t affect performance. With that, Oracle voluntarily forfeited four ACWS regatta wins.

New Zealand’s managing director responded, “Why would you do it if it didn’t make any difference? [Oracle’s explanation] is complete nonsense.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

There are only two challenger teams. Max Sirena, skipper of Italy’s Luna Rossa, represents the other challenger. When asked at Thursday’s news conference if Oracle cheated, Sirena said, “For sure. I mean, it’s pretty obvious what they’ve done, which is pretty bad for our sport.”

You know it’s bad when the official America’s Cup website has the following headline on its opening screen: “America’s Cup organizers dismayed by ORACLE TEAM USA revelations.”

So, what happens now?

To recap: the America’s Cup Measurement Committee made a finding that Oracle appears to have made “an intentional effort to circumvent the rules and handed said report to America’s Cup regatta director Iain Murray. Murray then filed a protest to the international jury of the International Sailing Federation (ISF). The five-member jury is investigating Oracle’s transgressions.

Penalties could be severe. Sail World says, “Penalties for deliberately altering a measurement condition of a boat are treated very seriously, often resulting in substantial bans from the sport on both those directly involved and those not directly involved, but who had knowledge of the situations and did nothing.”

Finally, the international jury is investigating the matter under Rule 69 of the International Sailing Federation Racing Rules. Rule 69 relates to “allegations of gross misconduct.”

Possible outcomes include throwing Oracle out of the America’s Cup regatta and giving the trophy to the winner of the challenger series. Or, they could allow Oracle to race, but spot the challenger one, two, or more wins in the best of 17 final. Or, they may settle for a fine. Larry Ellison, owner of Oracle Team USA, with a personal net worth of $43 billion, would likely regard a fine as punishment parody.

And in a perfect America’s Cup twist, on Friday the America’s Cup Measurement Committee admitted that one of the three Oracle boats was not illegally modified after all. The committee was in error due to their own “miscommunication and/or misunderstanding” with the boat builder that was preparing the catamarans for competition. According to an AP story, Oracle Team USA was investigating matters and asked to see their vessels. During conversation they were told the measurement committee never looked at the boats.

America’s Cup: A laugh a minute.

San Francisco was chosen to host the 2013 America’s Cup in January 2011. Organizers said the economic impact would be on the order of a Super Bowl. The regatta would bring with it 8000 new jobs and 1.2 billion new bucks.

Easy peasy. You’ve got San Francisco Bay as race course. You’ve got behemoth catamarans with wing sails 13 stories high, racing at 50 mph, hulls literally flying over the water, boats coming so close to land that spectators can hear sailors talk to each other. Now, add wall-to-wall American TV and, bingo, professional sailing goes mainstream.

Instead, for the grand finale, we are left with the real — although less real than it was yesterday — possibility of the defending America’s Cup champion being disqualified from the tournament for cheating.

The challenger series is not expected to be much of a contest. New Zealand has previously thrashed Luna Rossa in the Louis Vuitton Cup round-robins. The real question is, can this fiasco get any worse? Could it end with Oracle being disqualified, so that we can then witness the logical culmination to the 2013 America’s Cup regatta? New Zealand battling New Zealand. Best of 17 races, winner enthroned as America’s Cup champion, loser serves five years on the ISF international jury.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

More on San Diego inventions – Spike Bite and disappearing ink

The scandal of county supervisors at the library
Next Article

Three poems by Oso Guardiola

Conversation in the Cathedral, Schism, Runoff
Just add wall-to-wall American TV and, bingo, professional sailing goes mainstream.
Just add wall-to-wall American TV and, bingo, professional sailing goes mainstream.

When last we looked, so many teams had withdrawn or decided not to compete that America’s Cup was reduced to one-boat races. Remember New Zealand racing against New Zealand to see if New Zealand could bring home the win? Spoiler alert. New Zealand won.

On August 5, the America’s Cup Measurement Committee, in a report to America’s Cup race director Iain Murray, said Oracle Team USA had made “an intentional effort” to circumvent the rules. Or, to put it another way, the way everybody else puts it, Oracle Team USA cheated.

That’s what Grant Dalton, managing director of Emirates Team New Zealand, Oracle’s chief rival, told the AP: “You can’t actually get to any other point than the fact they were cheating.”

The cheat occurred during the America’s Cup World Series (ACWS), a run of races leading up to the America’s Cup regatta. Oracle admitted that illegal weights were placed on three of its boats but explained those evil deeds were done by a “small number of team members,” management had no knowledge, and, anyway, the extra weight didn’t affect performance. With that, Oracle voluntarily forfeited four ACWS regatta wins.

New Zealand’s managing director responded, “Why would you do it if it didn’t make any difference? [Oracle’s explanation] is complete nonsense.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

There are only two challenger teams. Max Sirena, skipper of Italy’s Luna Rossa, represents the other challenger. When asked at Thursday’s news conference if Oracle cheated, Sirena said, “For sure. I mean, it’s pretty obvious what they’ve done, which is pretty bad for our sport.”

You know it’s bad when the official America’s Cup website has the following headline on its opening screen: “America’s Cup organizers dismayed by ORACLE TEAM USA revelations.”

So, what happens now?

To recap: the America’s Cup Measurement Committee made a finding that Oracle appears to have made “an intentional effort to circumvent the rules and handed said report to America’s Cup regatta director Iain Murray. Murray then filed a protest to the international jury of the International Sailing Federation (ISF). The five-member jury is investigating Oracle’s transgressions.

Penalties could be severe. Sail World says, “Penalties for deliberately altering a measurement condition of a boat are treated very seriously, often resulting in substantial bans from the sport on both those directly involved and those not directly involved, but who had knowledge of the situations and did nothing.”

Finally, the international jury is investigating the matter under Rule 69 of the International Sailing Federation Racing Rules. Rule 69 relates to “allegations of gross misconduct.”

Possible outcomes include throwing Oracle out of the America’s Cup regatta and giving the trophy to the winner of the challenger series. Or, they could allow Oracle to race, but spot the challenger one, two, or more wins in the best of 17 final. Or, they may settle for a fine. Larry Ellison, owner of Oracle Team USA, with a personal net worth of $43 billion, would likely regard a fine as punishment parody.

And in a perfect America’s Cup twist, on Friday the America’s Cup Measurement Committee admitted that one of the three Oracle boats was not illegally modified after all. The committee was in error due to their own “miscommunication and/or misunderstanding” with the boat builder that was preparing the catamarans for competition. According to an AP story, Oracle Team USA was investigating matters and asked to see their vessels. During conversation they were told the measurement committee never looked at the boats.

America’s Cup: A laugh a minute.

San Francisco was chosen to host the 2013 America’s Cup in January 2011. Organizers said the economic impact would be on the order of a Super Bowl. The regatta would bring with it 8000 new jobs and 1.2 billion new bucks.

Easy peasy. You’ve got San Francisco Bay as race course. You’ve got behemoth catamarans with wing sails 13 stories high, racing at 50 mph, hulls literally flying over the water, boats coming so close to land that spectators can hear sailors talk to each other. Now, add wall-to-wall American TV and, bingo, professional sailing goes mainstream.

Instead, for the grand finale, we are left with the real — although less real than it was yesterday — possibility of the defending America’s Cup champion being disqualified from the tournament for cheating.

The challenger series is not expected to be much of a contest. New Zealand has previously thrashed Luna Rossa in the Louis Vuitton Cup round-robins. The real question is, can this fiasco get any worse? Could it end with Oracle being disqualified, so that we can then witness the logical culmination to the 2013 America’s Cup regatta? New Zealand battling New Zealand. Best of 17 races, winner enthroned as America’s Cup champion, loser serves five years on the ISF international jury.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Three poems by Oso Guardiola

Conversation in the Cathedral, Schism, Runoff
Next Article

JamPinoy: one cafeteria line, two cultures

Pick your island cuisine in Vista's new Jamaican-slash-Filipino eatery
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader