Oracle are seeking to lengthen the races in the America's Cup in San Francisco - possibly to gain an advantage over challengers like Emirates Team New Zealand.
However, the change, to be discussed at a pivotal May 14 meeting in the US, seems unlikely to occur. Changes of that nature can only be made with the unanimous consent of all three challengers and Team NZ are against it, even before the views of fellow challengers Artemis and Luna Rossa are known.
Emirates Team NZ boss Grant Dalton said yesterday that Oracle had raised the subject of changes to the length of the course: "They are saying that the boats are going faster than expected and the race may not be long enough. They are saying that if the wind is off-axis a little bit, it could affect things and they want to add more laps to the races."
Dalton said the effect of that would bring more upwind legs into play. The significance is that ETNZ's 72-foot catamaran has been the acknowledged early leader in the design and performance stakes leading into the start of the America's Cup regattas (the Louis Vuitton begins in July, finding a challenger to take on Oracle in the Cup regatta).
Team NZ have led the way in hydrofoiling - the art of reducing drag by lifting the giant yachts out of the water, connected only by foils and daggerboards - and they are popularly suspected of having the best downwind performance of all four syndicates. The reality won't be known until the yachts measure up against each other in San Francisco but Team NZ have been openly seeking a balance that gives them better upwind performance.
