"Excitable Boy" wrote in message
om...


FWIW, there isn't a yachtsman in the world who fully trusts the Kiwis
after
that escapade. It may be the greatest example of poor sportsmanship in
the
annals of international sport.


Conner may not have started that series of shyster games but he wasn't
far behind with the catamaran trick.

Oh, Hamei, don't be silly. Conner defended with the catamaran because
Michael Fay was trying to exploit an ancient quirk in the rules by
challenging with a 128-foot boat against 12-meter yachts that had less than
60 feet on the waterline. You know what that means in terms of boat speed,
right? Fay's boat had a natural hull speed that was 1.4 times that of a
12-meter. It was the biggest cheat in America's Cup history, and Conner just
wasn't going to let him walk away with it.

I'd still like to know what Fay was thinking. What kind of a greedy *******
is he, anyway? What does he think he would have won?

After a few of those silly seasons
the America's Cup kinda came back down to earth ... but imo it's ****
since it's become so commercial. BTW, it wasn't really a "64-foot class,"
ever. The cup-holder was always the one who decided what kind of boat to
race. It had just been in NYYC hands for so long that they thought they
owned the thing.

Well, if that was the case, how did a 128-footer sneak in? You may have read
the ancient Deed. What happened was that there was no hip-pocket challenger,
so the terms defaulted to let the challenger decide the type of boat, with
no need for agreement. When the US had the cup and there was a hip-pocket
challenger, the rules said that the two sides had to agree on the type of
boat.

They also pulled some *very* shady maneuvers a few times
in the past : Lipton would have won if he hadn't been cheated. He was just
too much the English Sportsman to complain.

It's always been a rough game. We never saw Lipton OR the NYYC show up with
a boat that was twice as big as the competitors', though. That was a new
low.

--
Ed Huntress
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