Alinghi to race in Valencia
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Alinghi sailing team will face its challenger BMW-Oracle in Valencia, Spain, in the best of three races in February 2010. Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), the Geneva, Switzerland sailing club that Alinghi represents, says that the Golden Gate Yacht Club, which is represented by BMW-Oracle, has not replied to its suggestion a week ago that the race be held in waters off the east coast of Australia. Thus the only other venue open to it legally, in order to comply with the February date, is Valencia.
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.
Alinghi 5, warming up to the America's Cup 2010, in Genoa, Italy 17 August 2009 (© 2009 Carlo Borlenghi/Alinghi)
Geneva, Switzerland/New York, USA (GenevaLunch) - The details of the boat BMW will be sailing in the 2010 America’s Cup race do not have to be divulged until two weeks before the race, a judge in New York has said.
The New York Supreme Court announced a verdict 22 September that went against the Société Nautique de Genève, home to the Alinghi team, and holder of the America’s Cup sailing trophy. It rejected Alinghi’s claim to disqualify the Oracle team from the 2010 America’s Cup race because, Alinghi told the court, the Golden Gate Yacht Club, represented by Oracle, had not provided, by the deadline, the required technical details concerning Oracle’s boat. The court agreed with Oracle, which had argued that a boat undergoes constant technical modifications until the moment it begins to compete.
In her ruling, Supreme Court Judge Shirley Kornreich nevertheless scolded the Oracle team for “unsportsmanlike behaviour” which “resulted in substantially reducing SNG’s (Société Nautique de Genève) advantage as originally contemplated by the Deed of Gift.”
BMW Oracle 90 foot trimaran, sea trials in Washington, USA, 13 August 2009. Photographer: Gilles Martan-Raget
Both teams remain committed to begin the race in February 2010.
The judge’s decision comes on the heels publication of a previously confidential agreement between SNG and the International Sailing Federation (ISAF).
Alinghi celebrates its America's Cup win, July 2007
New York, NY, USA (GenevaLunch) – A court in New York will ask the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), home to Alinghi, to show cause why it should not be held in contempt of court, at the request of The Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) of San Francisco, California, the GGYC announced 14 July. The GGYC also accused the Swiss sailing club, in its press release, of entering “into a secret agreement with the International Sailing Federation, the organization which will have a central role in selecting match officials and sailing jury.”
This is the fourth time since the last America’s Cup race, in July 2007, that the GGYC is taking the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), notes Alinghi. The SNG, in its reply press release, limits itself to accusing the other club of fighting in the courts rather than on water and saying it continues to wait for the other club to supply the court with required documents. Both groups claim to have court decisions on their side.
Alinghi relaunch, 2008
San Francisco, California, USA and Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Your average non-sailor might be forgiven for thinking America’s Cup is a game of ping-pong rather than arguably the world’s most famous sailing race. The legal battle between the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), home to Alinghi, and US-based Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), home to Oracle, continues, with the GGYC asking a court in New York for a new hearing, set for 15 May. Alinghi is the holder of the America’s Cup and Oracle is the official Challenger. Last week, 24 April, the Tribune de Geneve carried the cheerful headline that Alinghi had agreed to Oracle’s demand for a multi-hull race in 2010. For about an hour it appeared that the bickering might be over and a race could be run.
Photo, ©Ivo Rovira, 2008 for Alinghi
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – “Tremendous arrogance and lack of respect for the teams involved” is the way Geneva-based Alinghi is referring to the announcement Monday by Oracle BMW that it will not participate in the 33rd America’s Cup sailing race but will instead continue to fight Alinghi in the courts.
