No real progress in America's Cup venue debacle

by Richard Gladwell on 30 Oct 2009
Following the verbal Decision given by Justice Shirley Kornreich in the New York Supreme Court, on Tuesday, it would seem that little real progress has been made in terms of 'what happens next' in the America's Cup saga, now in its third year.

Sources spoken to by Sail-World, today, indicated that they were awaiting the written Decision from Justice Shirley Kornreich before making a decision whether to lodge an Appeal to the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court. Another option, at this stage would be to select a Southern Hemisphere venue. A third option is to opt for a regatta in Valencia, Spain.

In effect the event is in a state of suspended animation pending a written Decision from the Court.

At this stage it is understood that Golden Gate Yacht Club are not being involved in the venue discussions, and that several options are under consideration in the Southern Hemisphere. However the criteria for selection was not disclosed.

Within the last 12 hours (Thursday European time) reports came out the Spanish media that Valencia was very close to securing the 33rd Match, however those claims are believed to be very premature and other options are definitely on the table of the Defender, Societe Nautique de Geneve..

That stance could be for negotiating purposes and to extract a venue fee, when none was charged for the previously named venue of Ras al-Khaimah, ruled to be non-compliant with the Deed of Gift for the America's Cup because of prescribed Match dates, by Justice Kornreich on Tuesday.

The issue of cost of staging the Match is now a serious consideration given that Ras al-Khaimah had injected finance into the development of facilities, and it would not be possible to guarantee that such an arrangement would be extended to Valencia or other venues.

In addition, with both Challenger and Defender in the final stages of sea-trialling, and the prospect of a short but spectacular match on offer for the right venue, media interest is climbing in what would be a short, but high impact spectacle with no love lost between the two teams and their high profile, billionaire owners. It would be an event quite unlike other America's Cups.

Meanwhile time continues to tick away with 100 days left before the 33rd Match gets underway on 8 February 2010.

It is expected that a written Decision will be available within this week, and it would not be for another week before final determination as to their next step would be made by the Defender.

A Notice of Race was due to be issued on 6 November 2009, however that may now be delayed. There is no date specified in the Deed bof Gift for the issuance of such a document.

The International Jury is expected to be named by the International Sailing Federation, around the same time, and it is expected that they would take over sorting through the issues race and event management detail, raised by the Challenger and Defender.

If an Appeal is lodged, that would not automatically stop the clock on the Match and it would be necessary for the Defender, Societe Nautique de Geneve to obtain a Tolling Order, meaning that the clock would be frozen until the outcome of the Appeal was finally determined. The granting of a Tolling Order is not automatic and would be expected to be contested by the Challenger, Golden Gate Yacht Club. Two levels of Appeal are potentially available.

The written Decision by Justice Shirley Kornreich is also expected to rule on the questions of Rules for the Match - specifically whether a yacht's rudder is included in the Load Water Line measurement, and whether water ballast tanks must be filled for the same measurement. If the answer to both questions was 'yes' then that would have an effect on competitors exceeding hitting the 90ft maximum permitted for single masted yachts under the Deed of Gift, necessitating some design and configuration rethinking on the part of the racing teams, or risk disqualification.

Such definition could result in the appeal on Rules, being dropped by the Challenger, Golden Gate Yacht Club, meaning that the only outstanding issues were the determination and acceptance of the Venue by all parties. And the Breach of Fiduciary Duty action lodged by GGYC on Monday, against the raft of inappropriate actions by the Defender.

Societe Nautique de Geneve has until the end of November to respond to that legal action before the matter goes to Trial.