America’s Cup 2013 – My coque is bigger than yours

The more I read about the America’s Cup, the more I’m convinced that it’s just a means for some of the richest people in the world to show off their expensive lawyers. Check out the latest from the courts in San Francisco.

In a nutshell... The defender (Oracle) gets to decide the format of the next challenge, unsurprisingly they go for mega multihulls, because they are the most expensive and already have a design in mind (after success in the last cup).

The design, rules and equations are set out and agreed by Oracle and all possible contenders.

The contenders spend millions, some drop out, others hone their designs and finalise their challenges. The contenders have all produced boats within the rules that do not have a capsizing problem when gybing.

Oracle has a boat that does capsize when gybing (but is still designed within the rules)

As part of the safety review caused by the death of Andrew ‘Bart’ Simpson (part of Sweden's Artemis team) Oracle issues a fleet-wide safety notice stating that all boats must be fitted with moveable rudder winglets to solve their own problem – because their own boat is not designed right and it’s become a safety issue.

And the race director describes it as the pinnacle of their sport. You couldn’t write it, nobody would believe you. They may as well just sit opposite each other shouting: “My coque is bigger than your coque!”