Editorial: Cup hopes given a big boost

Throughout its recent history the rules of the America's Cup have been an evolving compromise between technical advantage and fair sporting competition. Now that Team New Zealand and the Louis Vuitton finalists have revealed their underwater secrets, it appears the defenders have gained a distinct technical advantage.

On the face of it, the black boat's designers have managed to attach a false hull, which lengthens the waterline of their boat without meeting the hull, yet without interrupting the water flow and creating drag. We say "on the face of it" because the defender is free to make further adaptations before the racing begins and the possibility that Tuesday's revelation was a bluff can never be ruled out.

But there seems little point in bluffing at this stage. The word was around a month ago, probably earlier, that Team NZ was using a false hull. If the innovation was simply a ruse to confuse or distract the opposition from more fruitful adaptations, it will have served its purpose. A few weeks ago, when Team NZ invoked a strict reading of the rule to suggest the challenger finalists could not change boats after the semifinals, the challengers were said to be testing a similar feature.

Team NZ did not press the point and it may be safely said that if either of the challenger finalists had successfully developed a false hull, their craft would have been equipped with it at the unveiling. If the hula, as Team NZ calls it, really works it could be the match-winning advantage. Nobody in yacht design doubts that a longer waterline, without the trade-off in sail area that the rules normally require, will make the boat go faster. Is that fair? If the America's Cup was an inshore yacht race like most others it would be contested in identical boats - and most of its distinction would be lost. There must be room for designers to test the rules to the limit as the New Zealanders have done.

The rules limit the movable appendages that can be attached under the hull, but there is no limit, Team NZ noted, to the fixed appendages. So if the hula does not move when the boat is in motion, if it does not touch the hull, it slips within the rule. If so, it is a truly remarkable piece of engineering. During a race the hulls of America's Cup yachts audibly groan, and flex, under stress and pressure. A second skin enveloping most of the rear of the hull would seem bound to come in contact with it, but they say it complies.

It is not enough, of course, for the team to say it complies. The new feature must be thoroughly and independently tested under racing conditions. In the compromise between innovation and fair competition, fairness requires that the cup adjudicators can be satisfied the false hull is not a movable appendage.

Sporting people have difficulty with the idea that one side may adapt the equipment for a decided advantage. It seems a little like tampering with the seam of a cricket ball or adding to the dimensions of a bat. The peculiar charm of the America's Cup is that it has never claimed to be a purely sporting contest. Money, design, craftsmanship and legal advocacy have been just as important.

The country that wins and retains the America's Cup is demonstrating much more than sailing prowess, although in that department the leading skippers in this Louis Vuitton series suggest New Zealand is unmatched. To have stolen a march in boat design yet again would be equally as thrilling, and more lucrative from a national economic point of view. Nothing yet can be taken for granted, not the success of the innovation, still less the superiority of the black boats overall. But our hopes have just received another boost - possibly a brilliant one.

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

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