Oracle's cheating won't attract Cup fans

By C.W. Nevius

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/nevius/article/Oracle-s-cheating-won-t-attract-Cup-fans-4733421.php

Here is a story from the SF news paper on the cup and the 'cheating' by Oracle in the un-important AC Worlds...

The Oracle racing team may have finally done the impossible - not win the America's Cup in a competition designed to attract a new generation of enthusiasts, but turn people off to sailboat racing.
This week the team was caught cheating.

It's been well documented that Oracle, the team that can't sail straight, has turned the America's Cup into a poorly attended bluegrass festival. We've already talked about how the promise of the Cup, majestic boats racing each other over the green waters of the bay, devolved to a single sailboat, "competing" alone, and then holding a press conference to discuss the "victory."

We've supported the races in the Bay Area. The city of San Francisco has poured money and facilities into the extravaganza, and we were promised a global showcase, an international event.
Instead we got Alex Rodriguez - using illegal substances to gain an unfair advantage.

Every time it seemed like there was hope that the Cup fanfare might be catching fire, Larry Ellison's Oracle syndicate has been there with a bucket of cold bay water to put it out.

During the last week, I actually heard people saying, "You know, I went down to the Cup races, and I have to admit those boats are amazing."

There was a flicker of a chance that after all the bickering, the terrible tragedy of the deadly Artemis crash, and the general public malaise about the event, that actual races between competitive boats might turn this around.

Perhaps a little nationalism might kick in when we got to the finals - the good old Oracle Team USA against those crafty Kiwis. (New Zealand hasn't officially been declared a finalist, but no one who has been paying attention expects anything else.)

Now it turns out the home team was cheating. And no, admitting that they used illegal weights doesn't qualify as an excuse. When racing syndicate head Russell Coutts said that the additions - probably used to keep the bow of the boat down in light air - were done without the knowledge of management, the excuse was far-fetched at best.

The entire Oracle operation is tightly controlled. The idea that a rogue worker sneaked on the boat and placed the performance-enhancing weights in exactly the right place (and on three different boats) without the higher-ups knowing is ridiculous.

As New Zealand team leader Grant Dalton told The Chronicle, "You can't actually get to any other point than that they were cheating. If it didn't actually make any difference, why do it?"

And by the way, cheating is one thing, but there's no excuse for being so sloppy. Handing the boats over for official measurement with the incriminating evidence still in the bow is just dumb. Ellison is said to be livid, and for good reason.

Now surely, the international jury isn't going to throw the defending champion out of the finals. It is much more likely that it will make Oracle forfeit some races. There's millions of dollars at stake, not to mention the prestige of the most revered trophy in the history of sailing.

And the shame of it is, this was a good idea. Putting the races on the bay, where they can be seen by everyone, was a sensational thought. The TV graphics and the interactive phone apps have been riveting.

But this has been one embarrassing screw-up after another. The 72-foot boats were too big and too dangerous. Only four of the predicted 15 teams are participating. The grand plan for San Francisco has left the city wondering how much it will get back of the $22 million it invested.

And Oracle, which is now claiming it would never stoop to cheating, has been caught doing so twice. (The first was earlier in the year when Oracle was fined and docked practice time for spying on teams in New Zealand).

But just think, if Oracle should win after all this, the race could be back in San Francisco next time.
You know what they say about that in City Hall?

Go New Zealand.