A flurry of news from the Cup in the last few days, so we’ll start at the beginning with a link to a nice story by the people at BYM News, who have gone to the trouble of reading Tom Ehman’s affidavit (as presented to the New York State Supreme Court by the Golden Gate Yacht Club’s (GGYC) legal team, in their challenge to Société Nautique de Genève (SNG)). In which Tom has an interesting story about an SNG ploy to hand the Cup off to the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, should they become unstuck in the New York Court.
BYM followed up this affidavit analysis with another cracker of a story, in which John Crawford, Commodore of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, denied all knowledge of the plan...
And for those of you who like nothing better than curling up in bed at night with a good legal document to read, I can offer you the decision from the 1988 court case. In which Mercury Bay Yacht Club went up against San Diego YC in a similar dust up over the nature of the next event. The court gives some interesting opinions that will presumably be taken into account in deciding the case now before it.
Then there was the fall-out on the story from the previous post, in which Ernesto Bertarelli had apparently asked that the chairman of the jury at the recent Farr 40 Worlds, Tom Ehman (the very same as mentioned above) should step down. But the jury, the class, and ISAF all decided otherwise, and Ehman stayed. As reported by Stuart Alexander amongst others, Ernesto followed that up by not turning up for the prize giving, after being beaten into second place by Vincenzo Onorato and his Mascalzone Latino team. Onorato is one of the refuseniks that have spoken out against Alinghi’s Protocol for the 33rd Cup.
Meanwhile, Team Origin, the British Challenger for the America’s Cup, have been throwing their weight behind Alinghi’s wheel with a statement on their website arguing for the Protocol. Of the three points they present in favour of the Protocol only one of them is actually in that document, the others were presented at a subsequent press conference and currently have no official standing - but leaving that hair splitting aside, the Brits clearly have a strategy in backing Alinghi, and I’m sure it will become apparent, sooner or later…
And then there’s ACM, who yesterday (presumably, as I can’t find any evidence of it) presented papers to the New York State Supreme Court in defence of their position. And for good measure gave a progress report on preparations for the 33rd Cup. Their account of it is on their website, while BYM News have a story on the views of Hamish Ross (who’s Alinghi’s legal counsel) on the court case. There isn't too much here that we haven't heard before, but it is good to see ACM coming out and defending their position, rather than just ranting at Ellison.
And on that theme, AFP report that Brad Butterworth offered Oracle and the Golden Gate Yacht Club an entry into the Cup (under the current Protocol). Butterworth is quoted as saying, ‘If Golden Gate entered now, and got on with the game of the America's Cup, they'd be accepted. We want them to be in the next America's Cup.’ And it does look as though the warring parties might be talking to each other...
ACM also announced that United Internet Team Germany have become the fifth official challenge to enter under the protocol for the 33rd America’s Cup.
And finally… the Valencia Sailing Blogspot reports that the contract for Valencia to host the 33rd America's Cup has been signed, although there appears to be some issue amongst the three Spanish signatories as to who’s actually running the show.
Make that... almost finally... as in that same Valencia Sailing story, there’s a report on the Vuelta de España a Vela which is apparently CNEV's latest 'annual regatta on an arm of the sea'. So far, Mr Pierre Orphanidis doesn’t sound very convinced…
So now you’re as up to date as I am - but are you any the wiser as to how this is all going to turn out? I’m certainly not.
And that's about all you're going to get in the way of insight and analysis on all this, but hey, I've got a novel to finish....
www.markchisnell.com
Mark Chisnell ©
BYM followed up this affidavit analysis with another cracker of a story, in which John Crawford, Commodore of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, denied all knowledge of the plan...
And for those of you who like nothing better than curling up in bed at night with a good legal document to read, I can offer you the decision from the 1988 court case. In which Mercury Bay Yacht Club went up against San Diego YC in a similar dust up over the nature of the next event. The court gives some interesting opinions that will presumably be taken into account in deciding the case now before it.
Then there was the fall-out on the story from the previous post, in which Ernesto Bertarelli had apparently asked that the chairman of the jury at the recent Farr 40 Worlds, Tom Ehman (the very same as mentioned above) should step down. But the jury, the class, and ISAF all decided otherwise, and Ehman stayed. As reported by Stuart Alexander amongst others, Ernesto followed that up by not turning up for the prize giving, after being beaten into second place by Vincenzo Onorato and his Mascalzone Latino team. Onorato is one of the refuseniks that have spoken out against Alinghi’s Protocol for the 33rd Cup.
Meanwhile, Team Origin, the British Challenger for the America’s Cup, have been throwing their weight behind Alinghi’s wheel with a statement on their website arguing for the Protocol. Of the three points they present in favour of the Protocol only one of them is actually in that document, the others were presented at a subsequent press conference and currently have no official standing - but leaving that hair splitting aside, the Brits clearly have a strategy in backing Alinghi, and I’m sure it will become apparent, sooner or later…
And then there’s ACM, who yesterday (presumably, as I can’t find any evidence of it) presented papers to the New York State Supreme Court in defence of their position. And for good measure gave a progress report on preparations for the 33rd Cup. Their account of it is on their website, while BYM News have a story on the views of Hamish Ross (who’s Alinghi’s legal counsel) on the court case. There isn't too much here that we haven't heard before, but it is good to see ACM coming out and defending their position, rather than just ranting at Ellison.
And on that theme, AFP report that Brad Butterworth offered Oracle and the Golden Gate Yacht Club an entry into the Cup (under the current Protocol). Butterworth is quoted as saying, ‘If Golden Gate entered now, and got on with the game of the America's Cup, they'd be accepted. We want them to be in the next America's Cup.’ And it does look as though the warring parties might be talking to each other...
ACM also announced that United Internet Team Germany have become the fifth official challenge to enter under the protocol for the 33rd America’s Cup.
And finally… the Valencia Sailing Blogspot reports that the contract for Valencia to host the 33rd America's Cup has been signed, although there appears to be some issue amongst the three Spanish signatories as to who’s actually running the show.
Make that... almost finally... as in that same Valencia Sailing story, there’s a report on the Vuelta de España a Vela which is apparently CNEV's latest 'annual regatta on an arm of the sea'. So far, Mr Pierre Orphanidis doesn’t sound very convinced…
So now you’re as up to date as I am - but are you any the wiser as to how this is all going to turn out? I’m certainly not.
And that's about all you're going to get in the way of insight and analysis on all this, but hey, I've got a novel to finish....
www.markchisnell.com
Mark Chisnell ©