AMERICA’S CUP UPDATE : NOTEBOOK : Fischer Adds His Disapproval to Handling of Bowsprit Issue

Challenge Australia boss Syd Fischer is as upset as New Zealand about the bowsprit waffling. His boat has had one, too, since the start of the second round last month.

Fischer, whose winless boat (0-15) is out of contention, nevertheless distributed a letter he wrote Friday to countryman Graeme Owens, chairman of the Louis Vuitton Cup challengers’ jury, whose opinion issued Jan. 25 differed on a key point with the Cup match jury’s opinion issued Thursday.

Fischer agonized that “a $500 million regatta is being further brought into disrepute. . . .

“It must have been apparent that the late decision to change the rules would cause distress and frustration to more than one competitor,” Fischer wrote. “Our whole foredeck operation has been re-designed and organized around the Louis Vuitton Cup jury judgment. . . .

“We would therefore ask you to carefully consider your next actions in order to avoid, for the sake of the event, further ridicule. . . . The rule makers and event organizers would be howled down by sports-minded people and the international press as contemptuous of competitors’ rights and as acting outside the true spirit of sportsmanship.”

The situation would be like a National League team being told about the DH rule two days before a World Series.

It’s interesting that while the five-man international juries are independent, each with its own jurisdiction, two men are members of both: John Ripard of Malta and Bryan Willis of the United Kingdom.

Obviously, at least one of the opinions was not unanimous, unless Ripard and Willis switched their votes.