Il Moro di Venezia Wins Protest, Then Race : Gardini Wants Kiwis Expelled for Improper Use of Bowsprit

SAN DIEGO — Il Moro di Venezia godfather Raul Gardini says New Zealand should be kicked out of the America’s Cup, an offer Sir Michael Fay decided he could refuse.

An extraordinary Sunday morning press conference followed a late-night ruling by the race jury that Saturday’s fifth race of the best-of-nine challenger finals, in which New Zealand came from far behind to beat Il Moro for a 4-1 lead, would be “annulled”--the jury’s phrasing, meaning neither side won.

Il Moro skipper Paul Cayard had protested the way New Zealand uses its bowsprit--unique to this event--especially while switching its gennaker headsail from one side to the other in downwind turns.

The issue has dogged the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger trials from the start three months ago. But when the jury didn’t award Saturday’s victory to the Italians, they presented their case to the media before defeating New Zealand on the water Sunday afternoon.

The presence of Gardini and Fay in front of the collective media for the first time here indicated how strongly they felt. The deeply tanned Il Moro multi-millionaire usually is only seen riding as the idle 17th crewman on the race boat, wearing a tie and smoking cigarettes. Fay has hardly been seen at all.

Sunday Gardini spoke seriously in Italian, with administrative director Gabriele Rafanelli translating from alongside.

“I said from the beginning that I think New Zealand is racing unfairly,” Gardini said. “We have to put all effort to make sure this unfairness is out of the America’s Cup.”

Asked to clarify his aim, Gardini did so, with Cayard, his bilingual American skipper, translating: “(Gardini) considers that there have been five races, and that all five races, not to mention all the rest of the selection series, have been raced by New Zealand illegally using the bowsprit, and he considers the Louis Vuitton Cup over and Il Moro di Venezia as the winner.”

Fay, listening from the other end of the dais, said, “I think in English he’s called for us to be thrown out of the show. If we’re not, we’ll be on the start line today, and there’ll one person out of the show in a few more days.

“Italy didn’t say anything, didn’t do anything, and now, when they’re 4-1 down, they suggest that New Zealand should be out and they should be the winner.”

Il Moro spokesman Stefano Roberti said the team didn’t take action earlier because “we had to put together a case . . . collect a lot of evidence.

“We are going to pursue this in any way we can. We have some ideas.”

Among words Gardini used were bon presso, for bowsprit, and malafede-- freely translated, “bad faith,” of which New Zealand stood accused.

Cayard said, “To me, the whole thing is a joke. This jury has been consistently in New Zealand’s camp on this issue.”

Cayard suggested that the five international jurors, headed by chairman Graeme Owens of Australia, were “incompetent or unprofessional,” guilty of “blatant misue of their discretion” and had “vested interest.”

Cayard also said, “Graeme Owens must be the only guy in this town that doesn’t know what system New Zealand is using on the bowsprit.

“A jury member in the third round happens to be the father of one of the competitors on New Zealand. During the semifinals we and Nippon and France tried to tell the jury that possibly it wasn’t a good idea. That met a lot of resistance.

“So you can get a feeling for what I was up against when I walked into the room last night.”

The juror-umpire was Don Brooke, father of New Zealand mid-bowman David Brooke. However, before he left the jury, Don Brooke excused himself from participating in decisions involving New Zealand. He is now New Zealand’s protest adviser and representative on the race committee boat.

Fay said, “We (have) an independent jury of people whose opinions and decisions should be respected. It’s quite inappropriate for any competitor to cast aspersions on their integrity.”

However, Fay’s team manager, Peter Blake, once called Owens “wishy-washy” for his handling of the bowsprit issue.

Cayard protested on the basis of Rule 64.4 of the international racing rules and 8.9 of the special conditions governing the event. The jury’s ruling addressed only 8.9.

Cayard said, “The point is that the gennaker on New Zealand is being flown by a rope that goes directly from the bowsprit to the tack of the sail. The rope is not led through a spinnaker pole.”

But the jury, deliberating until 1:15 a.m., noted only that “for approximately eight seconds (in Saturday’s race) the tack of the gennaker was being controlled by a line from the tack of the gennaker through a block near the end of a bowsprit. . . . (but) the infringement had no significant effect on the outcome of the match.”

The decision concluded that “the most equitable arrangement is that NZL-20’s win in Race 5 shall be annulled.”

That hardly satisfied Il Moro.

“New Zealand violates Rule 64.4 every single day,” Cayard said.

Bruce Farr, who designed the New Zealand boats, said, “There has never been an intent to circumvent the rule.”

Tom Ehman, general manager of the America’s Cup Organizing Committee, has joined the Italians in challenging the challenger jury’s rulings.

Fay said, “Mr. Ehman really has no place in the conduct of the Louis Vuitton Cup.”

It’s not the first time Fay’s team has been assailed at an America’s Cup. In 1986 it was the fiberglass 12-meter, in ’88 the 126-boat--132 feet with its bowsprit, which the San Diego Yacht Club answered--unfairly, Fay thought--with a catamaran. Fay fought back through the courts and lost.

Sunday was the second anniversary of the New York Court of Appeals’ ruling ultimately awarding the Cup to San Diego.