Key Answer Lost in Sea of Words : Sailing: $400-million issue remains. Plenty of committees have an opinion.

SAN DIEGO —  Q: What is a sheet?

A: It’s a line, or rope, that controls the trim of a sail. They don’t come in queen size.

Q: What is a foreguy?

A: No relation to Ray Guy. It’s a line that prevents the spinnaker pole from lifting.

Q: But before you decide to punt, when does a foreguy become a sheet?

A: That’s the $400-million question--the amount of dough people spent on the new America’s Cup boats--and one that has been causing Il Moro di Venezia skipper Paul Cayard sleepless nights.

It all revolves around the New Zealand boat, its controversial bowsprit and sailing Rule 64.4 (a) that stipulates: “No sail shall be sheeted over or through an outrigger (i.e., the bowsprit).”

New Zealand insisted it was a foreguy. The jury for the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger trials agreed with New Zealand. Il Moro said it was a sheet. The separate jury that will govern the Cup match next month agreed with Il Moro.

Finally responding to pressure from Il Moro and the America’s Cup Organizing Committee, the LVC jury moved Tuesday to put its rules concerning the use of bowsprits in line with those of the match jury, and by the end of the day it was so.

Or was it?

Tom Ehman, general manager of the America’s Cup Organizing Committee, wrote counterpart Stan Reid, chairman of the Challenger of Record Committee: “We are pleased to note that Amendment 6 . . . now conforms LVC Condition 8.9 to the Match Jury’s decision of March 5.”

Ehman announced Tuesday night, “We believe New Zealand raced today in accordance with this amended LVC condition.”

Reid said all principals had agreed to the amendment, but Il Moro executive Gabriele Rafanelli said, “We haven’t agreed to anything.”

The bowsprit issue has been ticking like a time bomb since March, when LVC jury chairman Graeme Owens of Australia said his interpretation essentially agreed with the one solicited prematurely from the match jury by the defenders, who were hoping to head off trouble in May.

Hardly anyone agreed with Owens, except New Zealand.

The issue came to a head this week when it became apparent that the challengers’ failure to resolve the issue could disqualify New Zealand from the match, if it were proven the Kiwis had been sailing by another set of rules all along. France, third in the semifinals, was ready in the wings.

Tuesday morning, before the day’s racing, Owens and the other four jurors, all in blue blazers, made a rare appearance before the media to entertain questions.

Reid said Condition 8.9 for the challenger trials had been amended to conform to the language of the match jury’s interpretation.

Owens said, “The particular word used by the match jury has a number of possible interpretations. It is the word ‘controls.’ ”

Asked, then, why the Kiwis were changing the way they were sailing if the word change in the rules didn’t change the meaning of the rules, Owens replied, “Who said they’re changing?”

Told that Reid, seated at the end of the dais, had said so, Owens said, “Then Stan knows something that we don’t. This jury does not believe they need to (change).”

Reid then said, “I believe some changes will be made today, but I could be wrong.”

New Zealand did change its method in Tuesday’s race, but it wasn’t much of the difference in a 53-second loss to Il Moro that squared the best-of-nine series at 3-3.

“If they changed,” Il Moro spokesman Stefano Roberti said, “it’s only proof that we were right.”

Owens was asked why he didn’t simply telephone match jury chairman Goran Petersson in Sweden to ask his definition of “controls.”

“I would consider it improper to make direct contact with Goran Petersson,” Owens said. “The correct procedure is for CORC and ACOC to make the joint request.”

But Ehman said Tuesday night that was no longer necessary.

Roberti said, “We still don’t know what Goran Petersson thinks is a sheet and . . . a foreguy.”

Cayard said, “For six weeks I’ve been pushing (for this) . . . and Graeme Owens finally agrees. I’m mad as hell.”

But he felt better Tuesday night.