Alinghi protest Louis Vuitton Pacific Series final - Hearing pending

12:31 AM Thu 12 Feb 2009 GMT

The winner of the Challenger Final in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, the America's Cup holders, Alinghi, have lodged a protest over boat allocation for the Final against Emirates Team New Zealand.

The gist of the Alinghi protest is that they wish to continue with the change boat process that has been used for the knockout rounds of the regatta.

However the Sailing Instructions state that the boat reallocation process shall be used only for the 'knock-out' rounds, and clearly the LVPS Final is not a knock-out round. That phase ended at the conclusion of the Challenger Final when BMW Oracle Racing was knocked out of the regatta.

The logic behind the rule, and its interpretation by regatta organisers, is that Emirates Team New Zealand wanted to be able to sail a single boat in the Final series which they could re-brand with their Sponsor Family, rather than being subject to the mix of generic and team branding that has been used to date.

Team CEO Grant Dalton told media that they had a team of signwriters standing by to re-badge the yacht, they would use.

During the series there has been comment by some teams that there is a difference in speed between the two Team NZ boats NZL-92 and NZL-84. NZL-92 was the yacht sailed by Emirates Team NZ in the 2007 America's Cup.

Dalton claims that the boats have been equalised and that they will be able to produce evidence to that effect.

However it is understood that Alinghi wish to see the normal match racing practice continued, of changing boats each race, as is done is all other international match racing events to ensure equality in performance.

The boat allocation for the Finals is not mentioned in the Notice of Race, but is published in the Sailing Instructions.

The Protest has been set for a hearing at 1330hrs. The protest will be against the Race Committee, and not Emirates Team NZ, however it is expected that they will be present as a party to the Hearing.

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.Com

Newsfeed supplied by

#News #Sailing

Alinghi protest Louis Vuitton Pacific Series final - Hearing pending

Sports/News

Weather Forecasts & Live Reports

Buy & Sell/Classifieds