The 33rd America's Cup is set to begin Feb. 8.
NEWPORT, R.I. – Finally, it’s time to race. The 33rd running of the America’s Cup is set to begin next week off Valencia, Spain. But with over two years of legal wrangling between syndicates carrying on through the best of three series, it’s unclear whether anything will be resolved after the Auld Mug is hoisted.
That’s right, the legal manueverings that have thrown the cup into disarray over the past two years, will, fittingly continue straight through the competition. On Monday, a New York State Superior Court judge said that she wouldn’t have time to rule on the latest challenge between Ernesto Bertarelli’s Alinghi team and challenger Larry Ellison, owner of the BMW Oracle trimaran.
That means, no matter the outcome of the races, the Cup may ultimately be decided in a court room.
The pending dispute centers around Ellison’s contention that Alinghi’s sails violate Cup rules because they were not made in Switzerland, where Alinghi’s yacht club, Société Nautique de Genève, (SNG) is based.
BMW Oracle and its host Golden Gate Yacht Club are also contending in a separate lawsuit that the Deed of Gift, which governs Cup racing, has been circumvented and Bertarelli forfeited his fiduciary duty by engaging in improper business dealings that allowed him to bypass the rules governing the operation of a charitable trust.
Meanwhile Bertarelli’s side has claimed that a wing on the BMW Oracle boat is noncompliant, and therefore should be ineligible for competition.
For purists, all of the legal wrangling has been unsettling. For Bertarelli and Ellison (who recently purchased the Astor’s Beechwood mansion on Bellevue), the disputes have grown increasingly tense, with each accusing the other of tainting one of sport’s most coveted prizes, while denying any wrongdoing of their own.
In any event, racing for the 33rd America’s Cup is set to begin Feb. 8; a ruling isn’t expected from the courts until sometime soon after.
Huzzah.
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Newport, RI
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Maybe the boats, sails, spars, etc should all be made by one manufacturer, under lock and key. No one enters, no one leaves. All this supervised by lawyers from each team whom will still acuse each team of cheating. Run the series in Opti’s, then we can see who the true sailors are. This series started to suck after the left 12 metres.
They did not have these troubles when Harp was in office!