The lack of wind and attitude of the organisers at the Louis Vuitton Cup has finally got to several of the challengers, led by joint series leaders Luna Rosa Challenge.
One of their members, Bruno Finzi, accused the competition organisers, ACM, of lacking respect for him and the other racers, who have only been able to race three regattas in the opening week of competition because of poor winds.
”ACM are putting their interests above those of the challengers,” he said. ”It should be normal that the challengers are able to decide the organisation of their event. It is probably best that we reorganise the whole of the first round all over again.”
ACM, which stemmed from reigning champions Swiss boat Alinghi, did not want to comment on the growing dissent, though on Sunday their president, Michel Bonnefous, had defended the choice of Valencia and the dates picked for the racing.
”Our first criteria for choosing the site was the wind and the sporting aspect,” said Bonnefous, who had to search abroad for a venue as Switzerland is landlocked.
However, the worsening atmosphere among the competitors and the organisers was reflected by South Africa’s Team Shosholoza, whose heads accused the race favourites of influencing the organisers over whether they could race.
”At this stage, all these no-sail days can become a big problem, especially with the smaller teams who need to race all the scheduled round-robin races to put as many wins on the table as possible,” team boss Salvatore Sarno said in a statement.
”We are very, very upset because today it was possible to race and we believe the big teams are pushing the race committee not to start a race.”
Sarno added that he did not agree with the decision to make seven-knot winds unraceable because they were judged to be too light.
”Shosholoza RSA 83 is the kind of boat that performs very well in light winds. There would have been no problem for an exciting race to take place. It is the very big teams that are worried about our performance. They are scared of what can happen.”
There could be more trouble on Tuesday as the winds are predicted to be as mild as they were on Monday.
So far, only last Friday and Sunday have seen any racing, and Luna Rosa Challenge and BMW Oracle Racing lead the standings with nine points each after three wins apiece.
Early favourites Emirates Team New Zealand are next with six points, having picked up their first win on Sunday following a shock defeat to Italians Mascalzone Latino on Friday.
The round-robin stages of the Louis Vuitton are due to run until May 7 or 8, with the semifinals scheduled for May 14 to 25 and the final from June 1 to 12.
The winner goes on to challenge Swiss defender Alinghi for the 32nd America’s Cup best-of-nine-match series starting from June 23. — Sapa-AFP