Christian, where do we start?
By the statement of the problem, that is, the three foundations of the America's Cup:
- The Deed of Gift, an 1875 statute that protects the Defender;
- The COR, Challenger of Records, first accepted by the Defender, represents the challengers;
- The protocol established by the Defender and the ROC that gathers all the rules of an edition, including the measurement of the boats. For example 62' prototypes as decided until the vote of March 31, 2015.
The length of the boats at the waterline is imposed by the Deed of Gift: from 44' to 90' with a single mast, and up to 110' if the boat has two masts. The chosen length of 48' overall, which allows the boat to remain above 44' at the waterline, although minimal and unprecedented in the history of the Cup, is nevertheless perfectly within the rules.
The lamentations about the loss of the spirit of the Cup because of the small size of the boats come from those who have not read the rules and have little memory. In 1956, when the 12mJI was chosen because of cost containment (already!) at the end of the Second World War, the same complaints from the nostalgic J class sailors predicted the end of the Cup.
History has shown them to be wrong and history will show it again. I'll tell you why at the end.
