America’s Cup starts with show of unity

SAN FRANCISCO: The 34th America’s Cup launched with a grand ceremony and a show of unity on Thursday despite concerns the premier yachting event could be scuttled by a clash over late rule changes.
Opening festivities started with an Oracle team stunt plane performing aerobatics over the 9,000-seat America’s Cup pavilion on the San Francisco waterfront.
Italian tenor Pasquale Esposito, Maori performers from New Zealand, a Swedish chorus and US “junk rock” group Recycled Percussion provided tastes of culture from the nations vying to hold the Cup when the races end in September.
Team members were introduced on stage to cheers, with skippers from each squad voicing enthusiasm for the “Summer of Racing.”
Watching from the audience was regatta director Iain Murray, who went on record with the Chronicle newspaper saying he would nix the Cup if an international jury doesn’t back rule changes made in the name of safety.
Murray on Wednesday downplayed protests filed by Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa of Italy with the jury, which is to meet on Monday.
Despite the controversy, everything was in place for racing to begin on Sunday in the Louis Vuitton Cup, the series of races in which three teams are to battle for the right to take on defenders Oracle Team USA in the America’s Cup finals in September.
Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa, scheduled to duel in the first race, contend that Murray exceeded his authority in some of the 37 safety rule proposals in the wake of British sailor Andrew Simpson’s death in May.
The crowd stood on Thursday as a video memorializing Simpson’s life was played on giant screens.
Simpson died in a training accident in which the AC72 catamaran of Swedish syndicate Artemis Racing capsized, and Murray has held firm that rule changes aimed at preventing another such tragedy were within his authority.
Artemis will miss early rounds of racing as it recovers from the accident.
A huge support team is working “night and day” at the Artemis base in a former US Naval Air Station on the island city of Alameda across the bay from San Francisco, skipper Iain Percy said.
“It is obviously a terrible accident for us,” Percy said. “It is really important to us to get back on the water and support this great event.”
Luna Rossa skipper Max Sirena and New Zealand team leader Dean Barker also took to the stage with their crews.
“We are having a fantastic time,” Barker said. “Conditions are challenging, but it will make for some amazing racing.”
When asked whether Luna Rossa was ready to race, Sirena smiled and said: “We are always ready.”
“It is such a beautiful trophy, and I can tell you the champagne tastes pretty good out of it as well,” Oracle team skipper James Spithill said after the coveted Cup was brought on stage. “We’ve all got a taste for it.”
A point of contention is a design rule change to catamaran elevators, a part of the rudder that affects how high boats can rise out of the water and, by extension, how fast they can go.
Rule changes focused on boat design fall under the category of ‘class’ changes that can’t be implemented without unanimous agreement from competitors, Luna Rossa argued.
Rivals have complained that Oracle was handed an advantage by the change because it has trained with the new design.
The controversy has been sarcastically dubbed “ruddergate” by some who think it overblown.