Alinghi in less contentious waters. Photo: © Dinah Roberts
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The oldest, most prestigious sailing competition may be decided in a New York courtroom instead of in the Persian Gulf waters off the Arabian peninsula. The defending team Alinghi, representing Geneva’s Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) put their huge catamaran into the water off Ras al-Khaimah (RAK), United Arab Emirates Saturday 17 October, but a New York judge must still decide whether the venue, traditionally chosen by the defender, may be allowed to stand.
On Saturday, Ernesto Bertarelli, the billionaire backer of Alinghi, called on the BMW-Oracle team to get down to business and start sailing.
The challenging team, BMW-Oracle, representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club and backed by software billionare Larry Ellison, claims that the UAE venue is too close to the Iranian coast for a US-flagged boat to sail comfortably, and wants the race to take place in Valencia, Spain. It had previously objected to Alinghi’s use of a small engine to assist human power in deploying the boat’s extensive sails. Alinghi’s main sail measures almost 780 m2. It is the first time in the history of the race that a motor has been allowed.
The Alinghi team anticipated the latest legal move and has marshalled a powerful list of reasons why RAK is safe. In a brief filed with the NY Supreme Court – the final arbiter in the America’s Cup race – 14 October it cites declarations by a former commander of the US Fifth Fleet and a former CIA official that RAK is no more dangerous than Valencia, and points out that Oracle has its Middle Eastern headquarters in Dubai, 100km down the coast from RAK, and that BMW has a showroom in RAK itself.
The legal fighting may postpone the race from its 8 February 2010 start. Sailers from around the world are deploring the way the clash between the two billionaires is damaging the reputation of the race, writes the NZZ in a report 17 October entitled “a farce, to be continued”.
Background:“America’s Cup down to the line on boat details” 23 September 2009, GenevaLunch
Links to other sites: Alinghi, AP, New York Times, NZZ (Ger)
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
News story, GenevaLunch, 19 October 2009.
Filed under: Sports
Tags: Alinghi, Amnerica's Cup, BMW Oracle, CIA, Dubai, Ernesto Bertarelli, Golden Gate Yacht Club, Larry Ellison, New York Supreme Court, Ras al-Khaimah, SNG, Societe Nautique de Geneve, UAE, United Arab Emirates, US Fifth Fleet, World news
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October 19th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
BMW-Oracle knows that it can only lose the race, so it is doing all it possibly can think of to sabotage and cancel that race. Shameful.
October 19th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Bertarelli has done everything in his power to destroy this event. I have no problem with the US group fighting to ensure the rules are followed, and that the defender is not allowed to stack the deck so much in their favor as to forever prevent a successful challenge. The move to RAK was clearly done to intimidate the US team, and is also in clear violation of the Deed of Gift.
October 19th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Alinghi is a disgrace. The Deed clearly states that races are to be held in the northern hemisphere in summer, and southern hemisphere in winter. RAK is in the northern hemisphere. Alinghi chose RAK because their boat would break in two (or three or four) in Valencia in February. The judge allowed Valencia or any other deed-compliant venue. RAK is not deed compliant.
Alinghi first started with a sham-challenger from a sham-yacht club, a new boat that only they would design, a set of rules that allowed them to disqualify any competitor for any reason it chose, now it is using gasoline-powered engines to trim the sails, and maintains that it can change the sailing rules right up to the start of the first race. They could mandate port-tack advantage if they so choose! Absolutely an abomination, and SNG/Alinghi should be stripped of their trustee-ship of the Cup. Return it to the previous trustee, RNZYS (New Zealand) and then let them organize a fair competition.
October 20th, 2009 at 8:53 am
Since they have added engines to the most prestigious sailing event, they should just take the next step and remove the sailors. Taking the “S” out of sailing turns the race into what it really is “ailing”.
October 21st, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Alinghi is being childish to insist and fight with BMW Oracle over an unknown gulf city.Be a winner, appreciate Larry’s concern, beat the Yankees in Valencia and become the real hero.Let’s not tarnish an age old competition, sailing fans will eventually loose interest.