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Sailing: Ruling keeps yacht race in ‘dry dock’

By Tim Jeffery 

Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli, the holder of the America’s Cup, has been knocked back a second time in the New York Supreme Court, with Justice Cahn turning down the request to invalidate the challenge from Larry Ellison and the Golden Gate Yacht Club and to hear an appeal over his decision last November.

Pushing back the Swiss does not, however, move the Cup forward. It is still stalled, all momentum lost after last July’s 32nd Cup in Valencia, with teams other than the Swiss and Americans shutting down or scaling back.

The next Cup could still well be contested solely by Bertarelli’s Alinghi and Ellison’s BMW Oracle teams and sailed in giant multihulls, rather than being a conventional series open to all comers.

  • Seemingly the only exception to this – the one desired by Cup teams around the world though the most unlikely to occur – is for Bertarelli to admit he was wrong last July in writing the Protocol rules for the next Cup in which he awarded the Swiss defenders too many unfair advantages.

    Ellison then launched his legal challenge in the New York Supreme Court which has jurisdiction over the Cup’s governing 1887 Deed of Gift document. He expressed a desire to have a normal Cup event open to all teams provided Bertarelli would negotiate one.

    Without such talks, it will be a duel-by-multihull. Bertarelli’s lawyer, Lucien Masmajean, said last night there would be no talks or compromise.

    “We look forward to getting the fight back on the water,” he said.

    • Posted In: International Boating on March 19, 2008 Comments (573)

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