Foto copyright Juan Pablo Cadario
Fuente info The Independent
Legality Of Team Origin Yacht Questioned
Fuente info The Independent
Legality Of Team Origin Yacht Questioned
The wings of a new €2m campaign involving Britain's top yachtsmen are threatened with being clipped just as it prepares to fly. Team Origin, set up to challenge for the America's Cup, has had the legality of its new 52-foot racing yacht called into question by an Audi MedCup official and has been certified legal to race only until 1 June.
The launch ceremony for the Juan Kouyoumdjian-designed yacht was also disrupted as team owner Sir Keith Mills flew out of Lisbon fearing, rightly, that the volcanic ash cloud could close the airport on Monday and, as deputy chairman of LOCOG, the Olympic organisation, he had to host a major dinner on Monday night.
The launch was put back to Tuesday and team members Leslie Greenhalgh and Charlotte Harmer stood in for Lady Maureen Mills.
At the centre of the row are some wings on the boat's keel which the class manager Rob Weiland says are outside the rules.
Juan K, as he is known, added the wings to improve performance of the yacht upwind, knowing that the price was likely to be a slight decrease in speed downwind. He has been in conflict with Weiland in the past, when his 50-foot Coyote was banned from the Admiral's Cup in 1999 for reinforcing with Kevlar the unstayed mast of the French yacht Coyote.
He says that he knew only a week ago of Weiland's objection and said: "There is nothing in the rule that remotely forbids (wings) or suggests anything like it. TP52s have had wings in the past, for instance on Karl Kwok's Beau Gests. I don't think it's fair. Interpretations are not the way to change the rule."
Stuart Alexander
The launch ceremony for the Juan Kouyoumdjian-designed yacht was also disrupted as team owner Sir Keith Mills flew out of Lisbon fearing, rightly, that the volcanic ash cloud could close the airport on Monday and, as deputy chairman of LOCOG, the Olympic organisation, he had to host a major dinner on Monday night.
The launch was put back to Tuesday and team members Leslie Greenhalgh and Charlotte Harmer stood in for Lady Maureen Mills.
At the centre of the row are some wings on the boat's keel which the class manager Rob Weiland says are outside the rules.
Juan K, as he is known, added the wings to improve performance of the yacht upwind, knowing that the price was likely to be a slight decrease in speed downwind. He has been in conflict with Weiland in the past, when his 50-foot Coyote was banned from the Admiral's Cup in 1999 for reinforcing with Kevlar the unstayed mast of the French yacht Coyote.
He says that he knew only a week ago of Weiland's objection and said: "There is nothing in the rule that remotely forbids (wings) or suggests anything like it. TP52s have had wings in the past, for instance on Karl Kwok's Beau Gests. I don't think it's fair. Interpretations are not the way to change the rule."
Stuart Alexander
