Six-boat semis mooted for Cup rivals

By Suzanne McFadden

An America's Cup challenger series semifinal with six boats? It sounds like Dennis Conner's three-boat final at San Diego in 1995.

The challengers for the America's Cup are looking at every option within the rules to find the best boat to take the Auld Mug out of New Zealand.

One option is expanding the semifinals of the Louis Vuitton Cup from four to six challengers.

The reasoning behind it would be to keep as many boats on the water closing in on the February 2000 Cup match, when the weather conditions are likely to be much different to those in the early round-robins.

Louis Vuitton spokesman Marcus Hutchinson said the challengers were very aware of Auckland's dramatic climate changes from October through to February.

"A boat that's very fast in the early round-robins in strong winds could walk through to the final, but that may not be the fastest boat to sail Team New Zealand in February's lighter conditions," he said.

"The challengers want to keep a bigger spread of boats in the game for as long as possible. A light-airs boat, which didn't do well early on, may come through.

"The smaller challenges will probably support it because there is no live television coverage until the semifinals."

If it goes ahead, the term semi-final is likely to be scrapped in favour of round robin four. The top two boats would go straight to the challenger final. But it will also hinge on how many challengers turn up at the startline on October 18 next year.

In the 1995 Cup series off San Diego, the defender final was extended to a three-boat race, allowing Team Dennis Conner to escape certain elimination and eventually win through to sail against Team New Zealand.

Part of the design challenge for this series is deciding which end of the wind scale to build your boat for, when the wind can fluctuate from five knots to 30 in a matter of minutes.

At a challengers meeting in Bermuda last week, a wind limit was settled for the round-robins. Racing will be called off if the wind blows consistently over 18 knots for five minutes.

A wind limit has not been set for the America's Cup match. But the call is likely to be on the water by the officer of the day, determined by the wind direction and the state of the sea.

In Fremantle in 1987, racing was abandoned if the breeze dropped below six knots or rose above 26.