Seattle's OneWorld Challenge made major modifications
to its race yachts Tuesday, preparing for the start
of its series Friday against American rival Oracle where
OneWorld will carry a one-point penalty imposed on it
by the Cup Arbitration Panel last week.
Chief executive Gary Wright said OneWorld was determined
to overcome the disadvantage of its prerace handicap.
"These last couple of years have been quite tough for
us, and we've had quite a few hurdles put in our way,"
Wright said. "But the team just seems to keep rising
to the challenge and dealing with it once again, so
I have every confidence that they'll do it next time,
too."
Spokesman Bob Ratliffe said the syndicate of Craig McCaw
hadn't decided whether it will sail USA-65 or USA-67
in the best-of-seven repechage series from which one
team will join Switzerland's Alinghi in the January
challenger final.
"We've made some major modifications to our boats and
the team are out there testing them today," Ratliffe
said.
OneWorld Challenge said Wednesday it had researched
the false hull but were "not convinced of its effectiveness"
but Ratliffe would not say whether OneWorld was experimenting
with the innovative false hull revealed this week as
defender Team New Zealand's secret weapon for February's
Cup match.
"We're certainly aware of what others are doing, and
we're doing our own research," Ratliffe concluded.
Challenger of Record Management, organizers of
the challenger series, applied to the panel for a clarification
of its Monday ruling for that reason.
CORM argued that if the deduction was applied an extra
race may have to be sailed to break a tie in a close
series. It said no provision existed in the rules or
schedule for that to take place.
Then the Challenger of Record Management, which is running
the Louis Vuitton Cup series, suggested to the panel
that instead of docking the Seattle-based team a point,
they give a point to OneWorld's opponents.
But the panel came back with a direction yesterday declining
Corm's suggestion, and saying the penalty would remain
as imposed.
"Thus in each case OneWorld starts the series on minus
one," the panel ruled. "If that has the consequence
that it is necessary for there to be an extra race,
that race will be held."
OneWorld executive director Bob Ratliffe said the panel's
latest decision had been "absolutely right".
The
neverending OneWorld case (12/10/02) (source
: NZ
Herald)
Yesterday, Seattle's OneWorld Challenge was penalized
a point for each of the remaining challenger stages
and one could reasonably think that this means that
the OneWorld case is finished. It's not so simple...
First, when the panel docked the Seattle-based team
a point for each of the remaining rounds of the competition,
their written finding it appeared that penalty did not
apply to the semifinal repechage, should OneWorld get
that far.
But OneWorld executive director Bob Ratliffe was today
greeted with a clarification when he got into work this
morning, explaining the penalty would also apply to
the repechage.
Second, Challenger series regatta director Dyer Jones
has applied to the Arbitration Panel to alter the penalty,
so that instead of OneWorld going into each round one
point down, the opposition would start one point up.
He said he had taken the action partly because the penalty
clashed with the rules governing the Louis Vuitton Cup
challenger series. In the current round, those rules
said the first yacht to win four points was the winner,
but now if OneWorld won four points they would have
only three on the scoreboard, he said.
Nevertheless, the CORM application raises the possibility
that under the rules, OneWorld could still win the round
with only those three points. Jones said also said if
OneWorld were required to win an extra point, the penalty
could add an extra race to any contests in which the
team were involved.
Two members of the arbitration panel were not due to
arrive back in Europe until today, so arrangements for
the five members to consider the application, probably
by conference call, have not yet been arranged.
OneWorld
penalized throughout the series (12/08/02) (source
: LV
Cup)
The America’s Cup Arbitration Panel (ACAP) has
docked the Seattle Yacht Club’s OneWorld Challenge one
point in the Semi Finals and Finals of the Louis Vuitton
and in the America’s Cup, if it advances that far. In
addition it has been ordered to pay costs to the Panel
of US$65000.
In its decision, the Panel "determines that OneWorld
Challenge has been in breach of the Protocol in that
a designer employed by OneWorld Challenge had in his
possession a computer file, a ZIP disk and a computer
that contained design information that was the property
of Team New Zealand, facts that were not disclosed in
the previous application ACAP 01/08."
The grounds for the penalty were found in ACAP 02/12,
a new submission to the Panel by OneWorld that contained
a new admission, this time OneWorld designer Ian Mitchell
told of a computer and a backup disc in his possession
that contained old Team New Zealand files. He said the
files hadn’t been accessed since he left TNZ.
"We respectfully submit that the America’s Cup
Arbitration Panel has levelled an extremely harsh judgment
against OneWorld…" said Bob Ratliffe, Executive
Director of OneWorld.
Interestingly, all of the other grounds brought up at
the hearing were dismissed, including everything submitted
by the applicants, Team Dennis Conner and Prada.
"This is a stunning indictment of honesty to be
penalized for telling the truth,” Ratliffe continued.
The penalty is a point deducted from OneWorld, and not
a point given to its opponent. For example, in its Semi-Final
match against Prada, the Italian team still must win
four races to advance to the Repechage. OneWorld would
need to win five races to advance.
Still hanging over OneWorld is a Rule 2 (Fair Sailing)
protest before the International Jury. Team Dennis Conner
has applied to withdraw the protest. International Jury
Chairman Bryan Willis says the Jury will convene on
Tuesday evening to consider the withdrawal application.
Other teams are invited to make submissions to the Jury
on this. w
