Underdogs? Really? These people should just be embarrassed. They are the defenders, and have Uncle Larry's war chest. To lose to a one-boat, shoestring-budget team will be completely reprehensible. To have cheated along the way virtually assures that LE's name will forever be tarnished in AC history. To have the gall to appeal to the masses as underdogs is disgusting.
Mike
I'm not sure ETNZ is that much of a shoestring budget team. They built 2 boats, and brought in one of, if not the best multi-hull design team in the world. Hint hint, they paid for the team that wrote the AC72 rule to design their boat and resulted in the first fully foiling AC72.
No, they can't afford, or decided against hiring a second sailing team to run their second boat around the course. In many ways I think this was a prudent decision. Boat #1 can be used for spares to keep boat #2 up and running on short order, and the team can be fully committed to boat #2. Oracle has stated on multiple occasions it's very exhaustive keeping a 2 boat program on the water.
I don't think Oracle are that handicapped going into this, they've obviously mixed their sailing team up in the past and they can do it again. Loosing their main wing trimmer was a blow, but their backup has plenty of AC72 experience under his belt.
I do think the decision was a bit harsh, for a relatively minor measurement violation but if you notice the guys that cooperated with the Jury got off fairly scotch free and those that didn't or were otherwise found responsible for the whole mess got the shaft. Still, to think the helmsman on all 3 boats were unaware is a bit of b.s, though perhaps Ben Ainslie wasn't notified considering it was a chartered ride.
