Fisher's View- See how the mainsail sets

by Bob Fisher on 29 Jun 2007 The words of the Beach Boys’ lyric are ringing in my ears:

'So hoist up the John B’s sail
See how the mainsail sets
Call for the captain ashore
Let me go home, let me go home
I wanna go home, let me go home
Why don’t you let me go home.'

The International Jury will realise how appropriate they are after sitting for five hours to deliberate on a matter of the ACC Rule 31.6 that concerns the lowering of the mainsail. Emirates Team New Zealand alleged that Alinghi, when charged to lower its mainsail had to send a man to the top of the mast in contravention of this rule.

The Measurement Committee’s representative had been on board Alinghi after the fourth race and watched the operation in which Pieter van Niewenhuyzen went aloft to attach a halyard to reduce the speed of the mainsail’s falling to the deck, purely to avoid breaking battens.

The measurer had been satisfied that Alinghi’s masthead lock conformed to the rule, but this was not enough for the Kiwi management, which had seen images of the bowman’s boot making contact with the mainsail as he was at the mast head, and considered this to be in contravention of the rule.

The protest was dismissed on a majority decision, which led Grant Dalton to say: 'This is not a clear cut case, the fact that the jury did not reach a unanimous decision points to that.' For Alinghi, Grant Simmer said: 'They either accept the role of the Measurement Committee or they don’t . . . that ’s the issue.'

Simmer also went on to say that it had wasted the time of three of the Alinghi team on what should have been a day off. Yet Alinghi had little compunction in wasting time with repeated Public Interpretation questions for the Measurement Committee. Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.