Some Say He’s Protesting Too Bloody Much : An English Rules Expert Plots Kookaburras’ Onshore Course

Politely, he is a “sea lawyer” to most of his rivals, although to crusty Syd Fischer he remains “a bloody idiot.”

But Brian Willis says: “I’m not a lawyer. People think I am. Perhaps I should have been.”

Nor does he answer to Fischer’s address.

He never handles the helm, trims a sail or grinds a winch, but even those he has wounded most severely must admit that Willis has become a principal figure in the Kookaburras’ bid to defend the America’s Cup.

Willis is the yacht racing rules expert the Taskforce 87 syndicate brought in from England, which makes him a pommie, the disparaging Aussie word used to describe a newcomer from England. Bloody pommie, in most references, accompanied by a great gnashing of the teeth.

Willis’ job is to direct the Kookaburras’ protest litigation, which has backed up the race jury’s case load by as long as three days. Between them, Kookaburra II, with 15, and Kookaburra III, with 5, have filed 20 of the 37 protests since the defender trials started in October.

For a long time, all the protests accomplished was to cost the judges their dinner reservations at exclusive Casa Italia while they deliberated late into the night. Willis’ first 12 efforts on behalf of Kookaburra II were dismissed or withdrawn, and he lost cases against Australia IV and Fischer’s Steak ‘n Kidney, although he won a round for Kookaburra III against Australia IV along the way.

But last week, he hit his stride. Winning three protests from two races against Australia IV resulted in reversing Australia IV’s victories and put Kookaburra II in position to keep Australia IV out of the defender finals when racing resumed today.

Rivals say that Willis’ role is to see that the Kookas win in the protest room whenever they fail to win on the water.

Warren Jones, executive director of the Australia IV effort, is an outspoken critic.

“Protests are a way of yachting but there certainly has been a completely new element of protesting introduced in this regatta,” Jones said.

“I just happen to thoroughly believe that the best place to win yachting events is on the water and that yachting protests should be restricted to legitimate protests. (Others) seem to think that protests, irrespective of their frivolous nature, should be used as a secondary measure to gain points.

“I hope that will settle down. I’m not too sure that all the parties involved aren’t starting to realize that factor.”

Willis says he agrees. When he used to race dinghies himself, he said, he experienced few protests.

“Less than average, I would say. I must say that some of the protests we’ve been putting in here I’ve recommended we don’t put in--the ones where I assess that we don’t have sufficient evidence to convince the jury. I’m going to be stronger on not allowing those to go in now.”

Willis’ expertise, however, has reinforced the naturally aggressive instincts of Kookaburra II skipper Peter Gilmour, who is more combative than Kookaburra III skipper Iain Murray, the syndicate leader.

“Gillie pays more attention to boat-to-boat (position), as opposed to out-sailing the other boat,” Willis said. “That’s why I believe that in the next America’s Cup you’ll see him as a very prominent skipper.”

Gilmour certainly made Australia IV’s Colin Beashel aware of his presence last Saturday when he luffed Australia IV so sharply that he tore away some of its spinnaker. Because Kookaburra II had rights as the leeward boat, Australia IV was disqualified.

Rough sailing?

“Anybody who doesn’t attack in that situation shouldn’t be at this level of competition,” Willis said. “That is something I encourage in match racing. If you overtake somebody to windward that close, you gotta look out.”

Gilmour, 26, has said: “The rules are in the book, and you should use everything to your advantage, on or off the water.”

Willis says: “Most of my role here is to train the afterguard (helmsman, tactician and navigator) so they don’t get into trouble, so that they’ll go into a boat-to-boat situation with a lot of confidence about what their rights and obligations are. They won’t infringe any rules but will still take full advantage of their rights.”

Murray, typically, would not have made such a move.

“He’s much more attuned to making his boat go fast, to outwit the other person with respect to wind tactics and that sort of thing, rather than to get tied up boat to boat,” Willis said.

Willis, 42, runs a small telecommunications business on the Isle of Wight, around which the first America’s Cup race was sailed in 1851. A member of the International Yacht Racing Union Rules Committee, he worked with Sweden in the 1980 America’s Cup and with Britain in 1983. This time, the Kookas paid expenses for him and his family to spend the Down Under summer in Fremantle.

“Normally at regattas I chair juries,” he said. “I’m normally on the other side of the bench.”

He watches the races from a helicopter, shooting videotapes to be used as evidence. If a red flag is displayed, he’ll meet the involved afterguard at the dock.

“We’ll sit down and, managed by me, will decide if there’s been an infringement and whether we’ll proceed with the protest.”

Between them, the Kookas have filed only three fewer protests than all 13 of the original challengers.

Willis points out that the defender trials have been far more competitive, with much closer racing.

“In the challenger series--I mean, really--when there were 12 or 13 boats, if you were a strong boat you could reckon that only one in every four races was going to be a good race. Even the semifinals were both walkovers (4-0).

“It’s only when you get down to real level stuff when you’ll get these boat-to-boat interactions.”

But there have been no protests between the two Kookas.

“Quite honestly, if you’re going to have two boats in the same camp, it introduces certain anomalies, and one of them is that when you have an infringement you’re going to sort it out between the two boats,” Willis said. “If there’s a collision, one boat might retire. It’s only to be expected that two boats in the same camp will never have a protest.”

Or, Kooka rivals believe, an honest race.

Willis said: “People think there’s something unfair about it. I can imagine a scenario in an ordinary fleet race series where it doesn’t pay you to win a race, for some reason. You really can’t blame anybody--I’m just talking in a general context--for doing something that is in their best interest.

“Another thing a lot of people get wrong is that there’s some sort of advantage in balancing (points between) the two boats. If you were going to do any balancing--I’m not saying we do--you’d have to drag one boat down to bring another one up, and you (might) allow someone else to get into a superior position.”

Willis said that when sailors go into the protest room, they shouldn’t have to feel they are going to court.

“The Western courts sit back and wait for the prosecutor to establish his case, and if he fails the case fails,” Willis said. “That’s not how a jury should operate.

“A sailing jury is more like a French court where you investigate the matter and don’t depend on the protester being an expert advocate. We don’t want that.

“As vice-chairman of the IYRU judges committee, I influence how juries operate and I try to encourage them to become investigative and want desperately to find facts. Never mind how people present their cases.

“It’s not a competition. What we all want is the theory defined as fact: What happened on the water? If we’re in the wrong, fine.”

But if Willis is doing his job, the Kookas will never be wrong.