AC 33 Jury | 1

I had a hard time finding out which issues have to be decided by the AC33 Jury before the boats can go sailing next Monday. On the site from Yachting World, a series of posts is starting counting down the last seven days. According to today's post the following questions are before the Jury:

1. Skin friction issue - re-inserted Racing Rule 53 ('Skin Friction'). Alinghi/SNG obtained a New York Supreme Court ruling to delete it, BMW Oracle want this deletion to stay, especially now they have a super slippery surface on the underside of their tri.

2. Start time - Currently shown in Notice of Race at 10am. BMW Oracle/GGYC argue that Deed of Gift says the start time has to be by mutual consent. Alinghi claim that the start has be then in order to provide enough daylight time to run to the time limit of 7 hours.

3. Wind and wave limits - BMW Oracle/GGYC are unhappy that Alinghi/SNG has set wind limits to favour its own boat when no such wind limits exist in the Deed of Gift. Contrary to popular opinion, there were no fixed wind or wave limits in the last event. The decision to race came down to the race officer's discretion. New Zealand 2002/3 was the last time fixed wind limits were used and demonstrated that such limits were easier in theory than in practice.
There is nothing in the Deed of Gift about having stable winds, winds of more than a certain strength, or less than a certain strength.

4. Wind detection units - BMW Oracle/GGYC are unhappy that the Notice of Race now bans the use of certain wind detection units. The American team has a sophisticated laser wind spotter that the manufacturers claim can see gusts and shifts up to 1km ahead of the boat. Such equipment was permitted under earlier drafts of the NOR.

5. Notice of Race to overrule the Racing Rules of Sailing - Normally ISAF racing rules dictate proceedings, in America's Cup racing it's the Deed of Gift which states that the race will be conducted under the Defending yacht club's rules. The order in which various rules are and notices are applied has been re-arranged for this event. BMW Oracle/GGYC want to see the structure returned to normal with ISAF rules towards the top of the tree, just under the Deed of Gift.

On the Official 33rd America's Cup Website a page about the AC33 Jury has been published. Besides the names and short biography, no other official documents as of yet.

The Jury will be meeting today, hopefully some info will appear on the site as well.

UPDATE 01/02/10 - 23:26 h
A statement has been posted on the GGYC-website: STATEMENT 1 FEBRUARY 2010.pdf
Nothing on the Alinghi-Website nor the AC33-Jury page