AC 45 World Championship Cheating??

I got that part wrong. But I still stand by my conclusions; whether foiler or not, OTUSA lost control of the configuration.

Cheers,

Earl

 

The begining of the unwinding of a lynch mob:

http://blog.sfgate.com/americascup/...-of-weights-violations-but-creates-confusion/

Taking an abrupt jibe from its previous position, the America’s Cup measurement committee has absolved one of the three Oracle Team USA boats in a cheating scandal that has taken front stage in the regatta.

In a new report[see post 42 this thread for a report pdf-dl] made public Friday, the committee said Oracle CEO Russell Coutts’ boat had not been illegally doctored in order to improve its performance in the America’s Cup World Series.

But it said that boats skippered by Jimmy Spithill and Ben Ainslie – who ran a British team called J.P. Morgan BAR– had illegal lead weights during the final four regattas of the warm-up series for this year’s America’s Cup.

An international jury is investigating the rules violations, which Oracle disclosed last week. At the time, Oracle was it was forfeiting its trophies from the four most recent ACWS regattas.

A racing expert familiar with the investigation said even if Oracle management had no knowledge of the illegal weights, “that still doesn’t exonerate the team.’’ He said Oracle bears some organizational responsibility for a blatant violation of the rules.

The new measurement committee report raised more questions, however. The measurers said they received initial word of the violations from Glyn Davies, an America’s Cup race management official, and Mark Turner, Oracle’s shore team manager.

In its new report the committee blamed “confusion in nomenclature, miscommunication and/or a misunderstanding on our part’’ for saying three boats were involved.

The measuring committee had not done its own weight tests of the 45-foot catamarans before issuing the report to regatta director Iain Murray on Aug. 4. Nor was it expected to, Murray said. “They weren’t required to be part of the process,’’ he said.

From Russell Coutts: " Coutts said he wouldn’t comment on the new measurement committee report other than to say, “It’s a great example of why you shouldn’t slander others before you’ve got the facts clear. It doesn’t pay to prejudge people.’’ Steve, Gary?!

 

Who Knew What...

It seems to me that this design alteration was a precise tuning of some sort of dynamic variable. As stated by others, the placement of this 'moment' on the CG seems inconsequential.

Therefore, my thought is that this was a big deal design issue & the "scapegoats" will suffer an ignomity for some well placed & well informed group of naval architects, modelers, simulators.

 

Doug, let it go,
A few posts ago you might have read I actually find it hard to believe that they had intentionally modified the boats to gain an advantage.
Bu the more information you post, the more you are likely to change my mind..

You quote Tom Fitzgerald and I assume you believe his article to be credible or you would not have brought it up here. After reading it I am even more sure of some strange behaviour involving Oracle, ACEA, ACRM and the Measurers.

"A racing expert familiar with the investigation said even if Oracle management had no knowledge of the illegal weights, “that still doesn’t exonerate the team.’’ He said Oracle bears some organizational responsibility for a blatant violation of the rules."

So in essence, based on the comment above, there is now no doubt that Oracle was cheating (blatant violation of the rules..) A racing expert said it, Tom quoted it, and it must be true, because Doug posted it here.

"The new measurement committee report raised more questions, however. The measurers said they received initial word of the violations from Glyn Davies, an America’s Cup race management official, and Mark Turner, Oracle’s shore team manager."

Cover-up 101: First we are told the Measurers discovered it and reported it to Oracle, now we are told an ACEA official and Mark Turner reported it to the measurers, so who discovered it and who reported it to who? This is how to create a cover-up, confuse everyone to the point where Mark Turner, Glyn Davies and the measurers can say they know nothing about any of this. ("Really, LEAD in the kingpost, where did you hear that ?")

"In its new report the committee blamed “confusion in nomenclature, miscommunication and/or a misunderstanding on our part’’ for saying three boats were involved."

See, this is implementation of Cover-up 101.. Of course RC's boat was clean, so the IJ can now not worry about handing him a ban from sailing and he can carry on leading the team. We said so, so it is.

"The measuring committee had not done its own weight tests of the 45-foot catamarans before issuing the report to regatta director Iain Murray on Aug. 4. Nor was it expected to, Murray said. “They weren’t required to be part of the process,’’ he said."

Now this is the best part. In ensuring that the boats all comply strictly with the OD class rules before handover to the youth sailors (presumably to ensure a fair regatta), the Measurers are not required to be part of the process.
REALLY ?? They can go on holiday while Oracle measure the boats themselves and declare them to be identical, and we believe them 'cos they're such nice fellows and are really good sports ?

It's no wonder Mr. Barclay never smiles when he's interviewed. He's running a freakin' circus, not a regatta. I'll take all my comments back about those who called this AC a freak show. It is, but not due to the choice of boats.

 

^^^

One of the fishier details was that Tugboat Turner was made to retract and modify on his initial statements to the MC, when Turner appears to have been the straightest arrow in the bunch.

 

I'm going to post as much info as possible but I realize that nothing will shut up a lynch mob or die hard conspiracy theorists. So be it.
The jury report is due soon so maybe then they'll be some facts.

 

While we're waiting for this jury report, let's give the floor to one of the die hard conspiracy theorists! Richard Shindler at the Bay Area's own Latitude 38:

 

I have now lost all faith in OTUSA/ACEA's credibility. As far as I'm concerned, all this "lynch mob," "conspiracy theory," "wait for the facts," "wait for the IJ," "wait for the official accident report," wait, wait, wait stuff is just a stall to suppress discussion until after the event is over. Coutts & Co. solicited and continues to solicit the public's money, both through the SF government and direct purchase of tickets and bling, and they damn well can respect the public's right to know and comment.

Cheers,

Earl

 

Richard Swindler, of Latitude, should go here for a rendition of what has happened so far...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10914052

 

^^^

Richard Swindler? Ha-ha. OK it's Spindler, my mistake!



The chronology in today's NZHerald article (link above) bears being reposted:

...


I found it charming that before the Measurement Committee were 'allowed' near the boats on August 13, they had to sit through a little meeting with Tom Ehman.

The same day, Ehman was apparently prohibiting any separate communications from the team, as gleaned from the following quotes from SFGate.com's article that day:

 

Are You Kidding Me?!

I just read the August 15th Measurement Committee's, "Additional report to the AC34 International Jury regarding unauthorized modification of OTUSA and BAR AC45 yachts." If I didn't suspect better, I'd have thought I was at the Mount Gay Rum night at the old Block Island Race Week... what confusion!!!

Let me summarize: (F-KP = Forward Kingpost, M-KP = Main Kingpost)

Coutts............Boat 5...F-KP 1.392 vs 1.390 ...... M-KP 1.827 vs 1.436
Ainslie/BAR.....Boat 9...F-KP 3.720 vs 1.390 ...... M-KP ----N.A.------
Spithill...........Boat 4...F-KP 1.638 vs 1.390 ...... M-KP 2.985 vs 1.436

Spithill's Boat 4 had wedged in plastic bag with 'iron' material in the M-KP, the small difference in the F-KP may have been due to the added weight of a pin.

If I was still allowed to drink, I'd re-enact a Jim Beam Night at Block.

What do you make of it, from all these alterations?

 

^^^

Gogostop, I'd have liked it if all the legitimate repairs to the AC45's had been logged and registered, which was the intention but did not happen. That throws a lot more confusion into the job of making sense of such discrepancies.

Never has there been a one-design class more painstakingly and expensively built, and double and triple checked before launch. This cheating scandal is especially bitter for the guys that built the boats, I think.

What you can make of the alterations?

Anything you like! Who knows what the hell happened.

I would have liked it if Oracle had immediately asked for the boats to be examined, and had prostrated themselves to the MC/IJ without all this foot-dragging and pussyfooting, and preliminary folderol about confidentiality.

So much time has now passed that nothing Oracle's spokespeople can say will appear anything other than guarded and very carefully weighed, and therefor far less than candid.

Their loss.

 

...

The Jury has made public a couple of notices this evening, and it is not especially good news for Oracle Team USA, who will now have to proceed further down the adversarial and legalistic and bloody minded path laid out by their 'external affairs director'.



JURY NOTICE JN101: Allegations of Gross Misconduct

JURY NOTICE JN102: Hearing: Protecting the Reputation of the America's Cup

 

I originally posted that I thought that the Oracle brain-trust must have discovered a serious dynamic's problem. Why? They very selectively place 'weights' in positions that would serve to damp an unexpected, unwanted resonance. But, I'm speculating. Why else would you do what they did?

Now, it turns out, if you look at the small table I posted, there's a hodgepodge of "adjustments." Now I'm thinking they knew of a problem, they made calculated improvements & surreptitiously executed the engineering changes. But they somehow forgot what they were so worried about & just left it all as a Jury Rigged fix. They sure didn't update the engineering drawings... rotfflmao!

One more thing: I've read that Oracle big-wigs said they added "lead shot bags" to the king posts. Maybe they did, but their own reports now say there's no evidence of lead shot...

As I said, it's like midweek at Block Island Race Week & the assembled masses are out of their minds on rum, vodka, too much sun, cleat bruises, etc, etc. It still doesn't make sense.

 

...

A nice juicy cheating scandal might be just the thing needed, to give a hefty boost to coverage and public awareness of the America's Cup!

When the Cup has already descended to the depths, of sailing these heretical and abominable god-forsaken airborne catamarans, what further harm is there in having the sailors and teams publicly flogged? Someone surely deserves a good flogging for subjecting us to all this triumphalist multihull nonsense...

Paul Lewis' article today at NZHerald is encouraging, in promising we may look forward to more headlines soon:

Excerpts: