Oracle Flies Kite in America's Cup Test

Associated Press Writer

The San Francisco-based America's Cup team made like Benjamin Franklin and flew a kite in a storm Thursday.

But the Oracle syndicate of software magnate Larry Ellison refused to say if kites would become the latest technological breakthrough in Cup competition. Oracle drew attention to itself on busy Hauraki Gulf when it hung out a radical sail that flew from a tether above its masthead.

Oracle cruised for about 30 minutes, moved by the steady tug of the soaring sail. Franklin flew a kite with a key attached to it in 1752 to prove his theory of electricity in the atmosphere, and it attracted lightning.

This time, however, there were no strikes, but upper-level winds moved the yacht along nicely.

Navigator Ian Burns was coy at a news conference on the eve of his team's showdown with Seattle's OneWorld Challenge. The winner of the best-of-seven series will oppose Alinghi of Switzerland in the challenger final starting Jan. 11.

"We've had a lot of innovative ideas throughout our project, and this is certainly one on the edge of innovation," Burns said. "Anyone who has ever flown a kite of that type knows that there are some significant advantages in having something of that nature, so there's distinct possibilities that it could pay off. Certainly, the results to date have been interesting."

Burns said the kite sail could best be described as "an ongoing research project."

He refused to say whether Oracle had taken the significant step of having the design recognized and approved by Cup rules officials.

"We've looked at a few options, and we've talked to a few people about it," he said. "I think there's room for more controversy before this becomes one."

Burns said the value of a kite sail, if it could be used successfully, was obvious, particularly in the fickle winds of the gulf.

"The higher you go the stronger the wind is," he said. "Certain days on the Hauraki Gulf we've had almost no wind on the water. But at 300 or 400 feet there's been 20 or 30 knots, and so there's obviously a benefit to flying a spinnaker at a higher elevation than your masthead."

People might dismiss the development, Burns said, but they should remember important innovations are common in America's Cup sailing.

"A lot of people probably looked at the winged keel and thought that was a fairly interesting looking sort of thing when they saw it," he said. "There are a lot of wings out there still."

An innovative winged keel helped Australia II end 132 years of total domination of the competition by the United States when that yacht won the Cup against Liberty in 1983.