Defender Finalists’ Tune Might Be Red Flags in the Sunset

Judging by the last few weeks, the America’s Cup judges will have far less to do on the challengers’ side than in the defenders’ trials over the next several days.

The defenders, with half the number of boats, filed 43 protests, nearly twice as many as the challengers’ 23.

What’s more, Kookaburra III skipper Iain Murray predicts a “blood bath” in the finals, and Australia IV chief Warren Jones agrees that “protests are a part of racing.”

Challenger rivals Dennis Conner and Chris Dickson share a different philosophy. Each filed only one protest in 38 races.

Conner said Monday: “If previous form is an indication, we won’t have as many protests here.”

Dickson: “I don’t think there’ll be too many protests.”

However, both challenger camps were gearing up for a red flag showdown with the Australians. Conner has had people researching the Aussie protests to determine a pattern, and New Zealand will have a non-sailing rules expert and three lawyers around from now on.

Kiwi legal chief Andrew Jones said: “Anyone racing with the Australians can expect to be involved in protests. If we can win our races with superior boat speed, why would we jeopardize our wins by getting involved in protests? We do everything to keep out of the protest room.”

Dickson said: “If you have a collision, one boat will be disqualified, and if you walk into a jury room, there’s something like a 50% chance you’re gonna lose that race.

“We know from sailing our races on the water, (winning) 37 out of 38, that it works out to, what, a 3% chance (of losing).”

However, the Kiwis will use the rules to their advantage in right-of-way situations.

“We do it all the time,” Dickson said. “Luffing sharply, sure. We use them all the time, but we use them in a way that there’s no down side for us. We’re engineering the other boat into a situation they shouldn’t be in.

“We work very hard not to get into any situations ourselves where we would be vulnerable. We only go into a tactical situation if there’s a 90% chance of us being right.”

Dickson’s tactician, Brad Butterworth, said: “Sometimes you have to collide with the other boat to prove you’re in the right.”

But Dickson said if there’s doubt, they’ll back off--for example, an inside overlap situation at the leeward mark.