Op-Ed: Oracle Team USA and Ben Ainslie Racing await Rule 69 investigation after admitting America's Cup World Series rules violations.
Depending on who you listen to in San Francisco, the revelation by Oracle Team USA in the last few days that their AC45 catamarans had been illegally modified during the America's Cup World Series, us either a storm in a teacup or professional sailing's equivalent of the Lance Armstrong scandal.
Oracle tried to take the high ground on the situation by issuing a carefully worded press release late on Thursday claiming that the infringement had come to light after an internal investigation led by team CEO Russell Coutts. The inference was that the American syndicate had caught itself cheating and done the honourable thing by withdrawing from the last four AC World Series events. In their view, it seems that should be an end to it.
In reality the illegal modifications were discovered by the America's Cup measurement team who were scrutineering the AC45 fleet for the upcoming Red Bull Youth America's Cup. The measurers discovered lead weights amounting to about 2.5 kg packed into the king posts at the front end of three of the boats - two which had previously been raced by Oracle and the other one prepared by Oracle but used by Sir Ben Ainslie's BAR campaign.
Read more here
Oracle tried to take the high ground on the situation by issuing a carefully worded press release late on Thursday claiming that the infringement had come to light after an internal investigation led by team CEO Russell Coutts. The inference was that the American syndicate had caught itself cheating and done the honourable thing by withdrawing from the last four AC World Series events. In their view, it seems that should be an end to it.
In reality the illegal modifications were discovered by the America's Cup measurement team who were scrutineering the AC45 fleet for the upcoming Red Bull Youth America's Cup. The measurers discovered lead weights amounting to about 2.5 kg packed into the king posts at the front end of three of the boats - two which had previously been raced by Oracle and the other one prepared by Oracle but used by Sir Ben Ainslie's BAR campaign.
Read more here
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