America's Cup: Challenger of Record calls for new ACWS Sardinia dates - goes to Arb Panel
by CoR36/Sail-World.com/nz 13 Mar 2020 13:59 PDT
14 March 2020
Cagliari, Sardinia venue for the first America's Cup World Series event - April 2020 © Richard Gladwell / Sail-World.com
On Friday afternoon, local time, the event organisers CoR36 declared it was impossible to organise the first event in the America's Cup World Series, due to the worsening international situation with the Coronavirus/COVIT-19.
Earlier in the week CoR36 declared that the America's Cup World Series Regatta would remain as an active event despite the COVIT-19 lockdown declared by the Italian Government which ends on April 3.
A few hours earlier, Emirates Team New Zealand issued an advisory note expressing the opinion that it would not be possible to run the first ACWS regatta as planned.
It is quite obvious that the ACWS Cagliari event cannot go ahead.
The teams are collectively entering discussions on a solution to create an equitable outcome for everyone around the loss and/or availability of sailing time due to the change of circumstance as a result of the global COVID-19/Coronavirus situation.
There will be a formal announcement made in due course.
It was always made clear that cancellation of the ACWS Cagliari was the call of the Organising Authority CoR36. However the issue is made more complex in that there are no Racing Rules agreed for the America's Cup, and the provisions of those rules in regard to the structure of events and the responsibilities of the OA are not applicable to the ACWS.
For that reason it is probably the best course of action to refer the matter to the Arbitration Panel for the event, for mediation or a decision.
The statement issued by the ACWS Cagliari reads:
Due to “force majeure” - following the declaration of the Pandemic CoViD19 by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the restrictions imposed by the different governments - COR 36 has declared the impossibility of organizing the ACWS Sardinia - Cagliari (23-26 April) event at the scheduled date. COR 36 also submitted a proposal to the Defender to postpone the event to a new date.
The Defender published a press release in which it announced the cancellation of the ACWS Sardinia – Cagliari without mentioning COR’s proposal of a new date for the event, and refused COR’s proposal without even discussing it.
COR 36 will submit to the Arbitration Panel the postponement of the ACWS Sardinia - Cagliari to a new date.