America's Cup- Oracle Team USA's boat arrested by US Marshalls
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com NZL on 10 Mar 2015
Oracle Team USA in Boat 4 completes a tack in the development AC45 on San Francisco Bay. She is now under arrest in a civil dispute John Navas
Lawyers acting for the aggrieved former Oracle Team USA crewman, Joe Spooner have advised that the AC45 #4 has been arrested by Marshalls in San Francisco.
Previously lawyers for Oracle Team USA advised Northern Californian Court that the boat had been sold to Team France in December 2013. It is understood that the boat that Joe Spooner worked on in Sydney was boat 5, and not Boat 4 which has been temporarily arrested.
The reported arrest is believed to be just a holding position until the matter is resolved through the normal litigation system, however it could delay the shipment of the surrogate AC45 to Bermuda. Oracle Team USA owns other AC45's, but none are believed to be set up as surrogates.
The statement issued reads:
Press Statement of the Three Containers Arrested at Pier 80 at 11.15 am Local SF Time
The vessel was in three containers and the US Marshals went into the Oracle Compound at Pier 80 at 9.00 am this morning and big MAC trucks were arriving to pick up containers. US Marshall Christian Hanson had called Oracle's lawyer at 8.20 am from the Federal Building in San Francisco and told him that no containers with the vessel were to leave Pier 80 otherwise Oracle would be in contempt of the court's order.
However as US Marshall Christian Hanson and his Deputy approached Pier 80 two containers were being removed by truck from Pier 80 at some speed. The truck licence numbers and the container numbers were all noted and a local contractor had taken a photo of the first truck and the numbers on the side of the shipping container.
Then the two US Marshals entered the property where they met with Ms. Luciana Corral and Ian Burns (who is the Program Manager).
The Marshals inspected all the containers that were located at Pier 80 and opened them up.
The US Marshals then arrested three full length shipping containers and the contents after they inspected the contents fully and were satisfied that they had located the THE MULTI HULL FOILING AC45 VESSEL '4 ORACLE TEAM USA', her machinery, mechanical drive system, hydraulic operating system, electronics, platform and appendages, hard and soft sails and appurtenances in these containers.
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