Wet boat not part of the rule book

By HELEN TUNNAH

Any talk that Team New Zealand's black boat might have been deliberately designed to take on water can be scotched by a look at the America's Cup rule book.

After NZL82 struggled under the weight of perhaps six tonnes of water on Saturday, Viaduct Harbour chatter began to ask how "wet" Team New Zealand's design team had wanted the boat to be.

Syndicate head Tom Schnackenberg said the boat often took a bit of water while out training, but not to that extreme.

And even if the New Zealanders had managed to carry the weight around for the first race, instead of limping home with a broken boat after just 25 minutes, they might have lost under protest.

The rules state just one tonne of ancillary weight can be carried on a boat in a race. Schnackenberg said there might have been six tonnes of water on the boat, while skipper Dean Barker estimated between two and five tonnes might have come over the side. The rules also say quite clearly that a yacht cannot deliberately take water, either by design or in the way the boats are sailed.

The America's Cup international jury was asked two questions by a syndicate last September about water ballast, although chairman Bryan Willis will not say who did the asking.

However, the questions related to a boat taking water before a race or during a race, for the purpose of changing its trim or stability.

Willis said yesterday that taking water inadvertently was allowed, provided reasonable steps were taken to get rid of it.

Unfortunately for Team New Zealand, Matt Mitchell's lone efforts with a small blue bucket were not enough to stem the flow on Saturday.

Willis said that since racing began in the cup on Saturday the jury had been asked one question about rules, and that involved sailing with sailbags in the scoop of a yacht.

He would release his ruling today but he declined to say who had asked the question.

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

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