even though the penalty seems harsh. You can count the winners by anything other than a complete rout on your thumbs: 1920 was NYYC over Lipton 3-2, and 1983 YPYC over NYYC 4-3. In every other case the loser lost by a margin of two or more races, most of the time winning none at all. Usually one boat is simply faster than the other, which is why a lot of America's Cup races are somewhat boring. The Louis Vitton cup finals being the most recent example. In the past, the slower boat tried to make up for it with maneuvers, but these boats don't maneuver, so the faster one simply sails away.

The real question in this story is, "why did these guys cheat?". Is DeRidder of particularly low intelligence? They had absolutely nothing to gain by cheating, and everything to lose.