Update

It's all about rudder elevators.
http://www.sail-world.com/USA/Ameri...racle-sails-with-rudder-elevators/111255

http://www.sail-world.com/USA/Gladw...e-being-used-in-the-Americas-Cup?/111207

http://www.sail-world.com/USA/Ameri...-seems-destined-for-Jury-or-Court/111211

Seeing double

Well, now that's starting to smell fishy.

Great pictures of two boat training. Can't wait to see the videos.
Two Boat Training

awsomenesss! (except for the lame drum loop in the background)

Well Done.

The only way I can tell boat 1 from boat 2 is on boat 1, the center "pod" (underneath the net) is longer. Boat 2 has a more raked pod trailing edge.

Two spars on the spin pole vs. one spar on the other.

Emirates Team New Zealand confirms its intention to file a protest with the America’s Cup Jury

Well, at least they'll have closure... and going to court is not an option (until you lose, I guess).

Simple answer (not likely to happen): If this is all about safety, have Oracle share all of their design and testing data related to the rudders with all of the teams.

Mike

It's not that simple - the Oracle boats have lower aerodynamic profiles than ETNZ, which has more volume up front to counteract pitching.

Allowing rudder elevators would give a significant advantage to Oracle.

He said the yacht “pitch-poled” . . . . Peyron said that, contrary to some reports, the boat did not break before it capsized.
NY Times Article

good to know - thanks for posting that.

Boat 1 has two pelican strikers and its boards are further forward.

Rudder elevators, wings, tips, whatever your cultural area calls them are becoming "the new performance stimulator" across the board. From A Cats to AC 72s there is evidence and growing faith that lifting foils add stabilization.

The rudder elevators, do, in fact, reward good driving and sailhandling! This makes it arguable as a safety feature in the light of two other AC teams supporting Emirates since have made hull modifications which they claim make the boat safer.

Now the sailing jury will decide which is the modern path to safety - high performance control (Oracle) or the 20th century approach by the whiners (Others sans elevators).

Could this be a ploy for "more time to train?" The move certainly adds drama for the audience. Let us hope that safety through modern design and athletic performance prevails over the traditional 'displacement (adding weight) approach' for safety. The Jury is out... postpone racing for higher speeds and thrills in lighter air??? But, Oracle may have stepped outside the lifelines for the sake of modernism a titch too late...

Simpler answer: Add an electronic interlock to the rudder elevator control. The interlock would indicate its status to the boat's communication pod at all times. Oracle would engage the interlock before racing, thereby satisfying the class rule that the elevator cannot be adjusted. If the indicator ever showed that the interlock had been disengaged during a race, Oracle would forfeit.

I think there's merit to ETNZ and Luna Rosa's argument. Changing the class rule to allow elevator adjustment while racing would be a "back to the drawing board" proposition. The challengers have no time left to design, build, and test such modifications.

I agree with that. Added to the situation is that Oracle has been using them for several months as training wheels so they have additional time learning to use them and possibly refining them.