Timing Is Everything

Shortly before the start of the repechage round of the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger quarterfinals Team New Zealand turned over a stack of affidavits to Team Dennis Conner and Prada to support their case that Seattle's OneWorld had stolen design information from TNZ.

The Arbitration Panel was summoned and, after ignoring the affidavits, witnesses' testimony and all other evidence, penalized OneWorld for its own revelation of having three-year-old TNZ design info on a 486 computer stored in a Seattle garage.

If TNZ hoped the matter would serve as a distraction for the challengers, it didn't seem to upset OneWorld much.

Now, as the semifinals wind down to a OneWorld-Oracle BMW repechage starting Thursday (Friday in N.Z.), Team NZ strikes again. Suddenly, with nothing else to do until February and apparently running out of reading material, the Kiwis pick up a copy of the America's Cup Protocol and just now make a startling discovery: the challengers can’t change boats before their finals.

Well, it doesn't exactly say that. What it says is in Article 6.2 is: "The Finals of the challenge selection series will be between the top two yachts in the Semi Finals."

First, these aren't yachts. A yacht has luxuries like bunks and heads and engines. You would not want to spend a single night on an IACC "yacht."

That aside, whom do the Kiwis thing they are kidding? The founding fathers of the Protocol clearly didn't mean "boats." They meant yacht clubs or teams.

But now the arb panel, weary of such nonsense, may be summoned back again, like parents tending to troublesome children. Maybe this time they'll spank the real troublemakers: Team New Zealand.

The Last Days of Prada

After getting blown out twice by OneWorld Sunday, Prada had to pick somebody to represent the team at the evening press conference. Navigator Matteo Plazzi drew the short straw.

With Prada down 3-1 (4-1 before subtracting the penalty) as today's coup de grace loomed on the Hauraki Gulf, Plazzi's appearance was painful to watch. At least the first question put the best spin on the Italians' situation, recalling how they came from being down 4-3 against AmericaOne to win the Louis Vuitton Cup in 2000, 5-4.

Q: "Matteo, would you say you pulled back two match points in the year 2000 against America One [and] this time you have to pull back three, are you confident [about] tomorrow?"

Plazzi: "We will definitely go out on the water tomorrow forgetting about today and will do our best to start to the first race and then we will think a lot."

Q: "Your starts [with Rod Davis driving] were not too good today. Do you think Francesco [de Angelis] will sail the boat tomorrow at the start?"

Plazzi: "Well, we have no changes planned at the moment. We have nothing to lose, so we will be aggressive and try to push as hard as we can."

Then it got tougher. Prada's crew work, including when the foredeck seemed oblivious that they were "shrimping" a chute, was abysmal.

Q: "What's going on with the crew work?

Plazzi: "I think we are trying to push harder and sometimes we push too hard. Unfortunately, we had some small breakages [that] pushed the crew to make moves we didn’t want to do and just one mistake became a bigger issue."

No Worries For Oracle BMW

For the skipper of a team that had just been blitzed 4-nil, Oracle BMW's Chris Dickson was remarkably upbeat as he prepared to meet OneWorld in the repechage.

"We have a very strong team with a very strong talented afterguard and a huge amount of depth in management, also, and we are a team that is quite willing and able to adapt to situations and we are not going to be beaten lying down," he said.

Of course, Oracle has every reason to be confident of meeting Alinghi again in the finals in January. OneWorld has to spot them one race . . . although that didn't do Prada much good.

Sailing Comes to Switzerland

The America's Cup may be heading back to Europe for the first time since it left in 1851. Switzerland doesn't have much sailing history, seeing as how it's landlocked, but Alinghi boss Ernesto Bertarelli claims interest is booming back home.

"Firstly, from Europe they are very pleased there is a European team in the Louis Vuitton Cup final," he said. "I was speaking with some people from the television in Switzerland and I think there has only been once in the history of Switzerland that they had more people watching sport on television."

That sport, he said, was curling.

"I am looking forward to beating that record at the final of the Louis Vuitton Cup," Bertarelli said.

It might be even better if he wasn't the only Swiss sailing on the boat.

Schuemann, Not Coutts, 'Backbone' of Alinghi

The pitch was groomed to boost Russell Coutts, but Bertarelli hit it to the opposite field.

Q: "It's not quite 18 months since Russell joined you and in that time you have won the Farr 40 Worlds, the 12-Meter championships and now you are in the Louis Vuitton Cup final. What was it you saw in Russell?"

Bertarelli: "Well, it is not only an individual it is a team, and I have to say people forget Simon Daubney, Warwick Fleury and Brad Butterworth. The one thing I am pleased about is the value of Jochen Schuemann in this group. He brings a tremendous amount of experience and he is the backbone of our team."

Schuemann is a three-time Olympic gold medallist from Germany.