America’s Cup Trials : Conner Protest Expected After New Zealand Race
Win or lose, Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes probably will protest the construction of New Zealand when those two meet in a possible match of unbeaten boats at the America’s Cup challenger trials next Wednesday.
And just to keep the water boiling, New Zealand’s prime minister is hoping to “leave the Americans for dead.”
The matter concerns a formal, two-part question filed Sept. 16--well before the trials started--by Conner’s Sail America syndicate about the legality of New Zealand’s fiberglass boat, designated KZ7: Is the density of the hull lighter on the ends than it is in the middle, and was a material heavier than lead used in the keel?
Sail America indicated that it also spoke for “other concerned syndicates.”
Gianfranco Alberini, commodore of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, which governs the trials as the challenger of record, said material checks would be conducted during the next examinations of the four yachts emerging from the three series of round-robin sailings into the semifinals beginning Dec. 28.
“Should any irregularity be found, the yacht in question will be disqualified and substituted by the runner-up,” Alberini said.
For Sail America, that’s not good enough.
“We want the test done now,” syndicate president Malin Burnham said. “The sooner you tackle an issue, the better it will be handled.”
A Sail America official in San Diego indicated Friday that Conner would force the issue by protesting New Zealand when they race next Wednesday. Then the matter would go to an international jury.
Michael Fay, New Zealand syndicate chairman, said his group’s boat met all the specifications and had received an official certification from Lloyd’s Register of Shipping rules for 12-meter craft. He seemed adamant about not allowing core samples to be taken.
Lloyd’s surveyor Paul Wilson-Mitchell, who assessed KZ7 before the event, told reporters it had been built within Lloyd’s rules.
America’s Cup Notes In the strangest incident of Friday’s racing in light winds, both Italia (3-2) and Canada II (3-3) rounded the wrong mark at the end of the second windward leg. Both went back and re-rounded the mark, and Italia won by 1 minute 7 seconds. The incident was caused when the race committee switched marks after a wind shift. Canada II flew a protest flag as it crossed the finish line but later decided not to protest the race committee’s action. . . . The other races went as expected: Newport Harbor’s Eagle (3-2) won by 2:03 over Italy’s Azzurra (1-5); Britain’s White Crusader (4-2) won by 1:28 over French Kiss (3-3); Stars & Stripes (6-0) won by 4:42 over Challenge France (0-5); San Francisco’s USA (2-5) won by 3:39 over Chicago’s Heart of America (2-4), and America II (4-1) won by 11:33 over hapless Courageous IV (0-5).