America's Cup talks fail while Swiss hawks ponder final agreement

by Richard Gladwell on 14 Jan 2010
The originally planned one day meeting in Singapore, chaired by ISAF Rules and Int Jury Chairman, David Tillett, has broken up without agreement being reached on the complete package of rules trade-offs designed to resolve all outstanding issues in the 33rd America's Cup.

The meeting was attended by Tom Ehman and Richard Slater from BMW Oracle Racing and Hamish Ross and Brad Butterworth from Alinghi, along with Tillett (AUS) and the ISAF's Treasurer and Executive Committee member, David Kellett (AUS).

Originally planned for one day, the meeting stretched to two, in order to reach agreement on all issues, including the vexed 'Constructed in Country', on which the Challenger, Golden Gate YC lodged a further complaint with the New York Supreme Court yesterday.

According to a statement issued by BMW Oracle Racing the SNG negotiators agreed on several occasions to a package resolving the matters, however on referral to Switzerland the agreement was knocked back. Sail-World now understands that it is still being considered by the Swiss parties.

The statement issued by Russell Coutts of BMW Oracle Racing reads:

'Talks in Singapore to settle major issues ahead of the 33rd America’s Cup have broken up. No mutual agreement was reached.

'This is very disappointing and frustrating,' commented Russell Coutts, CEO of BMW ORACLE Racing.

'On three separate occasions during the two days of talks there was a final draft of an agreement. GGYC was ready to sign. SNG’s negotiators were prepared to sign, but it seems they were not given permission.'

GGYC would like to thank the negotiating teams – Tom Ehman and Richard Slater for GGYC and Brad Butterworth and Hamish Ross for SNG – for their tireless efforts to reach a solution.'

'GGYC is also grateful to International Sailing Federation’s representative David Kellett and the chairman of the International Jury David Tillett for the 33rd Match for their helpful involvement in the search for a settlement.'

Further action both through the Int Jury and possibly New York Supreme Court is expected as a result of the failure of the negotiators from Alinghi to have their undertakings immediately countersigned by Societe Nautique de Geneve. An outcome that is even more surprising given that one of the negotiators for Alinghi was their skipper, Brad Butterworth. However maybe the Swiss mechanism runs at a different pace to its American counterpart.

Had an agreement been reached the 33rd America's Cup would have proceeded under Mutual Consent for its final days, turning the corner of a bitter period of over two years of litigation, acrimony and vitriol which has not served the parties well, and which has caused immense damage to the profile of the the sport of sailing.

Earlier Societe Nautique de Geneve's Vice Commodore, Fred Meyer issued a media statement on the action taken by Golden Gate Yacht Club over its sail manufacture:

'While Brad Butterworth, Alinghi skipper and Société Nautique de Genève representative, was in Singapore engaged in good faith discussions to resolve remaining issues ahead of the 8 February America's Cup Deed of Gift Match in the presence of David Tillett, the chairman of the ISAF America's Cup Jury, and David Kellett, the ISAF representative, BMW Oracle unilaterally aborted talks by filing their ninth lawsuit against the Société Nautique de Genève at the New York Supreme Court seeking to disqualify the Defender from the upcoming Match.

'BMW Oracle has already successfully disqualified 18 teams through the US courts to gain access to the Match, now they are seeking to win the Cup without ever racing for it,' said Brad Butterworth. 'This latest lawsuit has come as a shock given we were planning a further meeting to finalise discussions today, it demonstrates extreme bad faith. Clearly they are not ready to race. They have completely disregarded the jurisdiction of the ISAF America's Cup Jury, which they sought so hard to have instated, and have instead reverted to the New York courts where they clearly feel they have a greater chance of success,' he added.'

'SNG's defending yacht has been constructed in Switzerland in compliance with the provision of the Deed of Gift. SNG disagrees with GGYC's interpretation.'

'BMW Oracle's statement that Alinghi will be using USA-made sails is wrong. The sails for the Match have been constructed in a sail loft in Villeneuve, Switzerland. Furthermore, the 3DL process of making sails is subject to Swiss intellectual property rights. The inventors of the process, Jean-Pierre Baudet and Luc Dubois, are two Swiss engineers. Every challenger and defender for the America's Cup since 1995 has used 3DL Swiss technology based sails.'

'BMW Oracle's attempt to derail the America's Cup, and disregard ISAF's jurisdiction, and their continued unsportsmanlike behaviour is unacceptable,' said Fred Meyer, SNG vice-commodore. 'Alinghi is ready to race on the 8 February as mandated by the 7 April 2009 court order,' he added. 'We won the right to defend the America's Cup on the water by winning the 31st and 32nd editions, we want to go racing, we do not want the outcome of the America's Cup determined in court,' he concluded. '

The matter is expected to be heard by the New York Supreme Court ahead of the match in just three weeks.

However the dispute will be subject to Appeal at the Appellate Division level and possibly beyond.