Boat regulations change for next America's Cup

By JULIE ASH

Team New Zealand's managing director Grant Dalton said his financial backers can sleep easy - he won't be knocking on their door seeking money to cover the changes to the America's Cup design criteria revealed yesterday.

AC Management, which is running the event in Valencia, Spain, has changed the design regulations to fit the event to the conditions in the Mediterranean.

The new regulations reduce the weight of the boat by a tonne and reduce the height of the keel above the surface of the water by hanging the bulb 10cm lower.

The sails used for downwind racing can be bigger and the crew is increased from 16 to 17.

The design parameters are also narrowed so that the boats should be more similar.

AC Management say the changes should make racing closer and more exciting, and increase the possibility of place changes downwind.

Dalton said the changes would not mean an increase in the New Zealand budget, believed to be $150 million.

"It will have no effect on our cost," he said yesterday. "We haven't gone, 'Oh we have to add on $10 million'. It is cost neutral for us.

"They had to be careful not to make the boats obsolete and put costs through the roof, and they have done that."

The America's Cup class rule was introduced in 1992 after the mismatch between New Zealand's giant sloop KZ1 and Dennis Conner's catamaran.

Although the rule has not been radically changed since its introduction, Dalton said the new version allowed for plenty of development.

"Everything develops - rigs, sails, fin and bulb development, wings, rudders," he said.

"Change is constant. The new America's Cup rule will not stifle development.

"The cup is about development. It will confine experimental areas, but I still think you will still see quite different boats from what you did last time."

Dalton said the sails and rigs were two areas in which he expected to see development.

AC Management believe the changes will mean the boats will be lighter, quicker and more closely matched.

"Your reaction when your read the rule is that of a more sailing- driven campaign," Dalton said.

"But there will be good campaigns and not-so-good campaigns.

"Good campaigns will always race against each other, and the bad campaigns will always get beaten.

"The America's Cup, from what I have seen, is not about doing one thing 100 per cent better. It is about doing 100 things 1 per cent better."

The new rule comes into effect in 2005, which means this year's boats will be used in the first of the pre-America's Cup regattas which start next year.

Team New Zealand have set a deadline of March 31 to decide whether to make a challenge.

Key points

* The weight of the America's Cup boat is reduced by one tonne

* The allowable downwind sail area is increased

* Crews increase from 16 to 17

* The height of the keel above the water surface is reduced.


Further reading: nzherald.co.nz/americascup