Rules

I'm not going to blog about the America's cup - this is media commentary!

This article in the Herald about Team NZ's protest against Alinghi says:
"It may seem unfair to have docked Alinghi the race for such a technical fault which had no bearing on it"

Their journo must know very little about sailing, or be dedicated to oversimplifying. The issue Team NZ complained of was that Alinghi had to send a man up to drop their mainsail (that's the larger sail to the back). It's normal for any sailboat larger than a windsurfer to have its mainsail hauled up by wire/rope such that it can be released from deck level. This is only sensible, as the sail may need to be released in an emergency. If the sail was fixed to the top of the mast, you could potentially have lighter gear at the expense of safety - which would give you a slight speed advantage.

If a boat had this, then it *is* a material breach of the rules. As it turns out, it looks like Alinghi doesn't - it just has a halyard system that doesn't work very well.

I know this stuff - surely the Herald's yachting correspondent should?