GGYC America's Cup Newsline- Edition - 1
by Jane Eagleson, BMW Oracle Racing Media on 22 Nov 2008
BMW Oracle Racing on sailing trials off Anacortes BMW Oracle Racing Photo Gilles Martin-Raget
http://www.bmworacleracing.com
'GGYC Cup Newsline' is our new regular report to the media and others interested in BMW ORACLE Racing's activities on the water, in the courtroom, and elsewhere. We'll cover interesting developments in the sailing community, and among sailing fans and sponsors. We hope you find it informative and well-written. As always, you can see the latest photos from Gilles Martin-Raget on our team photo archive at www.bmor-photo.com.
It's been a busy couple of days so we have a lot to cover. Let's get to it:
An Interesting Perspective
'Mr. America's Cup' himself, Dennis Conner, recently gave an interview to AP in which he said, among other things:
BOR 90 'makes my cat[amaran] look like a Volkswagen . This thing is like bigger, faster, better, and they've done a great job in bringing all the technology together in this boat.'
'The whole sailing world will benefit by having this out on the race course in a lot of different ways.'
'I applaud Larry Ellison for building this boat. I'd like to see it race and I'd like to see Larry win because Alinghi is trying to shanghai the event.'
Update from SA: Dennis Connor also speaks candidly about the current America's Cup situation - and the Cup Defender, Ernesto Bertarelli, in an interview just posted on the Sailing Anarchy website.
SA: What do you think of the current America's Cup mess? Will it get back on track?
DC: Of course it will. The reality is that at some point the legal part of the current competition will end. It's certainly not the first time the AC has been adjudicated or fought in the court of public opinion. Lord Dunraven accused the NYYC of cheating at the end of the 19th century - he left, quit and went home. Alan Bond was accused of cheating in 1983 and never signed the consent agreement that said that he wasn't. What happened in '88 was even closer to what we're seeing today, with a Deed of Gift match, a multi-year court battle, and acrimony across the board.
Arguing about the interpretation of the Deed of Gift has ALWAYS been part of the Cup – after all, these are rich, powerful, strong, egocentric people trying to win a competition. It's no different from big business, and now it's gone back to its roots - two billionaires duking it out like Sir Thomas Lipton and Vanderbuilt – nothing new here, and sooner or later it will be over, and someone will go racing.
SA: Any thoughts on who is right?
DC: Bertarelli just looks pretty desperate to me. He's trying to control the whole event, he wants to tell everybody what kind of boats to race, and how they're going to race them. He wants both sides of the deal. This is a big change from the way it was always done.
The Challengers used to work together to beat the Defender. Now he wants to be the Challenger and the Defender by sailing in both sets of trials. It's no surprise that Oracle has a problem with the 33rd protocol, and this time Bertarelli wasn't even subtle – his 'Challenger' holds their annual regatta in Optimists. Optimists!
Click here for the complete interview: http://www.sailinganarchy.com/index_page1.php
No Strings Attached?
On Tuesday of last week (Nov. 11), Alinghi hosted a meeting of the Challengers, and despite Brad Butterworth telling the media that we could attend 'no strings . attached,' in fact, he later again extended the invitation but with a string attached - we could attend if we drop our lawsuit which is designed to make sure Alinghi has fair and competitive rules for AC33.
But without a commitment from Alinghi to change the protocol in return for our commitment to drop the suit, this was a non-starter, as Alinghi (and any fair-minded observer) knew. As a result of being 'locked out,' we issued the following statement. The key take away (as it has been for over a year) is this: 'We repeatedly have offered to drop our lawsuit on one simple condition - that Alinghi adopt fair and competitive rules.'
Mascalzone Latino went to Geneva for the Challengers' meeting but refused to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) that Alinghi insisted all participants sign. No NDA, no admission! In response to their being locked out, they issued their own statement. Other serious Cup contenders who were conspicuously absent: K-Challenge and Luna Rossa. And Victory Challenge, which attended the meeting, did not sign the Oct. 31 Challenger's 'letter' asking us to drop the suit.
The meeting resulted in some welcome changes to the Protocol, but more changes are required, as we expressed in a statement on Wednesday. '[A] major sticking point remains the arbitration panel . In addition, other fundamental fairness issues remain to be addressed, including the fact that the Defender . can change any of the rules at any time and can impose any new rule or restriction on the competitors.'
Court Watch
On Thursday, Société Nautique de Genève filed its reply brief in the New York State Court of Appeals, with a companion brief filed by CNEV and an amicus brief from the City of Valencia. We were not surprised at the misstatements of fact in the briefs.
We were surprised at SNG's and CNEV's differing lists of possible participants in AC33 and astonished to learn from CNEV's brief that the Mercury Bay Yacht Club 'won and defended the Cup.'
Since others are not following the case as closely as we are, we issued a statement that states our purpose ('We are fighting an attempt by SNG to circumvent the rules of the America's Cup by installing a sham yacht club as Challenger of Record in order to create an unfair protocol that gives it unprecedented and lopsided control of the contest'), corrects the record and underscores 'just how unfair and anti-competitive Alinghi's AC33 rules are.'
What's at Stake
In an interview with www.sail-world.com/NZ/Americas-Cup-proves-to-be-a-stubborn-beast/50816!Sail-World_on_Friday, Tom Ehman highlighted precisely what's at stake if the flawed proposed Protocol becomes the governing document of AC 33. Key quote: 'Alinghi and their Challenger of Record can still amend any of these Rules at any time and still impose new Rules. Any serious challenger would not - should not - be comfortable with that.'
Tom noted that we had sent a letter to the Spanish team that outlined a 10-point plan for fixing the Protocol. Full text of that plan:
10-POINT PLAN FOR A FAIR AND COMPETITIVE AMERICA'S CUP 33
The following is a 10-point plan that articulates simple changes to the proposed Protocol for America's Cup 33 that would address the concerns of many Challengers who want to ensure that the rules of AC33 are fair. With the exception of #10, the plan is based on the points we negotiated with the Challengers in December last year, and reflect further concessions since offered. Agreement to these 10 points by the Challenger community could return AC33 to the water as early as 2010.
1. Once the changes to the Applicable Rules are completed, any further changes to Applicable Rules governing AC33 shall be mutually agreed between Defender and the Challenger of Record (COR) (subject to point #2).
2. All Challenger of Record decisions, including agreeing to the ACC Rules, Event and Competition Regulations, shall be made by majority vote of the Challengers in a Challenger Commission, one vote per team, including the COR who also has one vote, except that material amendments to the Protocol, Event Regulations or Competition Regulations, once agreed and issued, can be made only by unanimous vote of Competitors.
3. The current Arbitration Panel shall be dissolved and a new Arbitration Panel shall be appointed comprised of five members; SNG and the
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