Success of U.S. Cup Entry Leads to Feud Over Design

As USA 87 struggled from time to time, Cup observers wondered if BMW Oracle was headed down a bad track. But Farr says it was always meant to be a test platform and its performance provided exactly the sort of input the design team needed to cast off bad ideas and pursue good ones.

He contends that some of the ideas that didn't pan out were Kouyoumdjian's, but also concedes that some concepts the Argentine promoted for USA 98 proved productive.

But overall, Farr says, it was his team that did most of the dirty work of analyzing data to see what would work and what wouldn't before it went into the hull shape. "Juan threw out ideas, and some of them were good," he said. "But it was up to us to sort through it."

The product of it all is USA 98, launched last winter, which has proved formidable in almost all conditions. The sailors love the boat. "I've never seen anything come together this well," said tactician Gavin Brady. "Chris [skipper Chris Dickson] is really happy with the boat -- and he sails it very well."

Ellison himself gives Farr most of the credit for USA 98, calling "talk that it's a Juan K boat" simply untrue.

For his part, Kouyoumdjian seems content to be part of a successful team and to take pride in the way he and Farr worked together. "It could have been a disaster," he says. "Bruce Farr is someone that with his success and brilliance, he comes in with a lot of certainties, and that can present obstacles.

"To think we wouldn't have differences, that's utopic. But differences of opinion are the strength of a good team. How we worked through those differences is the key, and we did very well. He was very open and professional."

Burns agrees. "It couldn't have been smoother," he said. "That's why we can't understand why it's falling apart now."

With a possibility of victory in the America's Cup looming, with a fast boat, a solid team, plenty of resources, all the bits and pieces for success in place, a happy skipper, a committed owner, a solid commercial sponsor, what's to be gained from a pie fight now?

It's a question no one here seems able to answer.