Rulings perplex yachties

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

The America's Cup is infamous for making up the rules as they go. Yesterday another evolved - getting a point without starting a race.

Young America were awarded one point by the international jury after they left the racecourse with damage before they even crossed the startline in their Louis Vuitton Cup match-up with Young Australia on Wednesday.

Rival challengers were last night bewildered - and pretty unimpressed - by the jury's decision, with AmericaOne lodging a protest.

Paul Cayard's team maintain the jury have erred in handing out the bonus point, saying it has made their standing in the points table "significantly worse".

AmericaOne are, in fact, three points ahead of Young America in fourth place - but only after the New York syndicate withdrew from racing for the second day running.

Nippon skipper Peter Gilmour said last night that his syndicate didn't understand the decision.

"It doesn't seem consistent with going in a race to win points. All of our Japanese members have been left bemused and wondering what's going on," he said.

"It's a strange process where you don't even have to start a race to get the same points that we got for a win in round one. You don't have to race and you can improve your position."

Added America True skipper John Cutler: "It seems strange to have five points out of a four-point race."

The Australians kept their four points for sailing around the course alone. The jury found that the race committee were wrong in failing to give Young America a delay to fix their problem before the race, but determined that they would not have been able to repair the damage in 45 minutes.

Their solution was to give Young America a point to remedy the situation.

The damage done to the boat that day still remains a bit of a mystery.

Skipper Ed Baird finally described it yesterday as a break in the gooseneck - the fitting between the mast and the boom - and the crew feared the mast might snap.

But a letter written to Young America supporters by Jim Marshall, director of the syndicate's partner yacht club programme, had it differently. He said "disquieting noises were heard where new structures had recently been added" - which could be an area in the hull strengthened on USA58 after its sister yacht snapped in the middle a week ago.

Yesterday's problem was with the mast - they could not raise the mainsail on USA58 in their race against Stars & Stripes and eventually went home.

Baird denied that there were any structural problems on the new boat.

"We're caught in a situation where things that I would consider somewhat normal that happen to these boats happened to us," he said.

'Because we didn't have much time with this boat before the round began we're now finding things that need extra attention.

"If you took away the fact that we had significant damage to USA53 the other day ... it's not any different than the things that have happened to other boats."

Young America have had a dismal second round - collecting full points from only four of their nine races. They have failed to finish two races, forfeited two and lost once to Prada.

Baird is certain all damage will be patched up for their last race of round robin two today, against - of all teams - AmericaOne.