Arthur’s column

So it’s now one-all in the dismasting stakes!  With both BMW Oracle and Alinghi having now suffered a dismasting one has to question the reliabiity of these boats. Perhaps the outcome of the America’s cup, should the race ever move out of the courthouse, would be more determined by who makes it through all 3 races!

Alinghi are now saying they will move the race to Australia on the east coast.  Given that it could only be in Valencia if in the northern hemisphere,  according to the various legal wrangles, this is not that surprising.  The Swiss team is not popular in New Zealand and the only other possible southern venues would be South America or South Africa – the latter undoubtably too rough for these fragile craft.  Expect the venue to be somewhere very sheltered!!

More on the dismasting …

RIBs that follow the BOR 90 during testing sessions recovered the damaged mast and returned to the base later in the evening.

The team will spend Tuesday night assessing all the available data to gain a full understanding of what happened.

“We really need to go back and look into the numbers and see what footage we have. Right now, it’s too early to say why and where it failed,” Spithill said.

“The biggest priority was making sure everyone was safe and getting back to the dock and now we’ll evaluate (what happened).”

That process was well underway on Tuesday night.