America's Cup - An Open Letter

This is an open letter to the Société Nautique de Genève and the Golden Gate Yacht Club from the Commodores of the five yacht clubs that either set the America's Cup competition in motion: the Royal Yacht Squadron, or have been a former trustee of the Cup: the New York Yacht Club, the Royal Perth Yacht Club, the San Diego Yacht Club and Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

'We write to encourage you to negotiate together for a fair and equitable multi-challenger competition for the thirty-third defense of the America's Cup. We believe that such an event, as opposed to a 'Deed of Gift' defense, is in the greater interest of the sport of sailing in general and of members of the broad America's Cup community, who have invested their time and resources to make the event a true international competition of the highest order.

'We hope that the current challenger and defender will work together to find a way through their differences to bring about such an event for the good of yachting and the America's Cup.'

The Lord Iliffe, Commodore Royal Yacht Squadron
David K. Elwell Jr., Commodore New York Yacht Club
Mark Fitzhardinge, Commodore Royal Perth Yacht Club
R. Andrew La Dow, Commodore San Diego Yacht Club
Scott Colebrook, Commodore Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron

AMERICAS CUP BACK ON THE WATER!!

No, you read it right, this is no April Fool, this is the real thing!

For those of you who need a brief update on the reason for the long delay: Following Alinghi’s successful defence of the trophy in July 2007, they accepted CNEV, a newly-formed Spanish Yacht Club as Challenger of Record. The two teams set about changing the format and rules for future Americas Cup series. A number of other teams were outraged by this and one of them, BMW Oracle, commenced legal action against Alinghi in the New York courts, alleging that CNEV was not a valid Challenger of Record.

A court hearing in November 2007 found in favour of BMW Oracle but Alinghi appealed and, in June 2008, managed to reverse the original decision. BMW Oracle then counter-appealed and the whole thing was brought to an end with a New York Supreme Court ruling yesterday, 2 April 2009. An extract follows:

'Since CNEV has failed to show that at the time it submitted its Notice of Challenge it was a 'club fulfilling all the conditions required by' the Deed of Gift, it does not qualify as the Challenger of Record for the 33rd America's Cup competition and Supreme Court was correct in declaring GGYC to be the valid Challenger of Record.'

SNG, Alinghi’s home club said yesterday: “It has consistently been our view that the America's Cup should be fought on the water. Today through the American courts the Golden Gate Yacht Club has won the right to challenge the Société Nautique de Genève. We will now discuss the terms for the regatta with them and will prepare our defence of the 33rd America's Cup.”

GGYC, BMW Oracle’s home club have yet to comment, but a statement from Tom Ehman of GGYC following the first court hearing still seems relevant: He said ““From the very beginning this whole process has been about stopping the defender from imposing a wholly one-sided set of rules on the Cup that was strongly opposed by the great majority of challengers.”

CNEV issued a statement saying: Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV) and Desafío Español have received the news of the New York Court’s decision with disappointment.
The court’s decision confirms Golden Gate Yacht Club as the Challenger of Record, to the detriment of the Spanish club.

So what now? The situation was best summed up by Richard Gladwell of Sail-World.Com: “The fate of the America's Cup lies in the hands of Ernesto Bertarelli and his clubs and team.

Take the hard line and insist on meeting Golden Gate YC in a multihull and there will be another round of Court argument and Appeal, which will not be resolved for another two years, plus the 10 months taken from todays date for the match to be held - effectively three years.

Or, he can take the magnanimous line, agree to operate under Mutual Consent and run a multi challenger event, which could be underway in 12 months time (April 2010) with the first preliminary regatta being sailed off Valencia in the months time.

Your call, Ernesto.”

There will be more stuff to resolve before the show is well and truly back on course but we will keep you posted as the news breaks. Good sailing!
Mike O’Neill

Mike O'Neill writes regularly on Sailing and the America's Cup here

Larry Ellison wins in court over the America's Cup 33

A New York court Thursday backed American team BMWOracle over the Swiss champions Alinghi as an end to a long-running legal fight that could now mean the next America's Cup will be a duel between the two clubs in multihull boats.
The New York Court of Appeals overturned a ruling last year that backed, Club Nautico Espanol de Vela (CNEV), a Spanish club as the official Challenger of Record for the next edition of yachting's premier event.
BMWOracle, owned by American billionaire Larry Ellison, will now replace the Spanish club as the Challenger of Record, giving it the right to help organise the next America's Cup with defenders Alinghi.
"We're very pleased with today's decision by the New York court," Oracle spokeswoman Jane Eagleson told AFP. "We're carefully studying the decision and expect to have more to say in the next few days."
Alinghi's spokeswoman said the club would issue a statement later Thursday.
Oracle now has the right to demand the next America's Cup be a best-of-three duel with Alinghi in multihull boats, rather than the traditional regatta involving several teams, but the US team has said it is willingto negotiate with Alinghi to reach a deal on a traditional regatta, and the court in its ruling even called on them to talk with the Swiss champions to settle terms.

Fun in the Port of Valencia, The Trophee Clairefontaine

The Trophee Clairefontaine got off to a great start yesterday with their sailing equivalent of the qualifying circuits at Formula One, the Warm-up Rhodia. It makes for a highly entertaining afternoon. The races in small catamarans are short and so close to you in the Basin of the Juan Carlos 1 marina, that you can almost touch them!
Racing continues today from 12 O'clock with 'Raids'off the beach at Las Arenas, followed by 2 hours of races back in the basin. The final day and trophy giving is tomorrow, Sunday.
The best news is that it's all free to the public and the best views are from the Veles i Vents building.
More from our sailing correspondent Mike O'Neill later.

And so, the sailing begins in earnest, The Louis Vuitton Regattas

Alinghi the current holder of the America's Cup

The Louis Vuitton Regattas take place in Valencia from the 3rd to the 07th of April, It will be the only opportunity to see Alinghi and all the 11 Challengers Race together. From then on in it is the Louis Vuitton Round Robins, which take place from the 16th April through to the 07th June, when the teams will be knocked out until there is only one challenger left to battle it out on the waves for the Prestigious America's Cup. This huge international event takes place in Europe for the first time in over one hundred years. The full timetable can be found by clicking on the headline

America's Cup. United Internet Team in Training

Thisisvalencia.com spent a very pleasant day in the company of the United Internet Team Germany on Tuesday. We were given a tour of the German 'house', met members of the team and were then taken out on a launch to watch the team training in both their boats, GER89 and GER72. More on all this later, but we thought we'd share some of the photos with you first. A little later, we'll be posting some footage of the boats in action.

Want to know more about the America's Cup, but were afraid to ask?

Quite a few people have mentioned to us that they don't really know waht the America's Cup in all about - Well, with the help of our new Sailing correspondent, Mike O'Neill, we think we can help - All you need to know about the America's Cup is now online on thisisvalencia.com read it by clicking on the title of this entry.
(Photo credit: Ivo Rovira/Alinghi)