12:51 PM Thu 7 Jul 2011 GMT
Sail-World understands that the International Jury for the 34th America's Cup has upheld the position advanced by the Defender, Golden Gate Yacht Club, over the transition of the original Challenger of Record role to Sweden's KSSS (Kungliga Svenska Segel S?llskapet).
That Club is represented by Artemis Racing, headed by Paul Cayard, a collaborator with Russell Coutts in the former World Sailing League, which advocated the establishment of a professional sailing circuit in 70ft catamarans, at a time when Coutts was disenfranchised from the 32nd America's Cup, by his former team Alinghi.
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Then - Russell Coutts, Joao Lagos and Paul Cayard at WSL launch. Coutts and Cayard, are two of the major personalities of the modern America's Cup, but are not actively sailing in the 2007 event. -
WSL2009.com
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In late May 2011, following the surprise resignation of Mascalzone Latino (Vicenzo Onorato) from the 34th America's Cup, followed soon after by the team's club, Club Nautico do Roma and the substitution of KSSS as Challenger of Record, Emirates Team New Zealand lodged a complaint with the International Jury.
The basis of that complaint was that Emirates Team NZ (via their club, Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron) had in fact beaten KSSS to the punch, when entries opened for the 34th America's Cup on 1 November 2010.
Later it was disclosed that the two teams had attempted to lodge their entry by email. The Entry from Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron was claimed to be a few seconds too early, and was lodged later. Emirates Team NZ challenged the accuracy of the mail server logs - a situation well removed from the ambit of George Schuyler who drafted the 19th century Deed of Gift which governs the America's Cup.
The Notice of Challenge from Kungliga Svenska Segel S?llskapet was, the first out of cyberspace, after the GGYC's clock had ticked over midnight on 1 November - and was accepted. It was also claimed that processing of the entry fee from KSSS happened more quickly than that of RNZYS, and that GGYC had accepted the first clean Challenge.
Emirates Team NZ/RNZYS took the matter to the International Jury, and won the first round, then the Jury found there was indeed a case to answer, and GGYC was then required to make formal submissions on the validity of their acceptance of the Swedish club as the replacement for the Italian Challenger of Record.
Initially the Defending Clubs stance was to blow the claim out of the water on the basis of a technicality, in that the complaint/protest should have been lodged earlier.
Many were surprised that Emirates Team NZ/RNZYS had even bothered to initiate the proceedings, given their previous comments that they regarded the role of Challenger of Record as a 'poison chalice' - in that no CoR has ever gone on to win the Match, in the modern era of the America's Cup.
Further the role does involve some administrative overhead, for which Emirates Team NZ have shown no previous appetite.
However the counter is that the Challenger of Record role does carry the ability to veto any changes to the Protocol governing the America's Cup, and given the previous history between Coutts and Cayard, there was a degree of unease, in the camp of the two-times winner of the America's Cup, with the shotgun marriage between GGYC and KSSS, and hence the complaint - which evolved into a formal Protest.
The current status of the International Jury decision, is that it has been circulated to the Teams but not yet announced publicly.
The original media statement issued by Emirates Team NZ is as follows:
Emirates Team New Zealand is asking the America's Cup jury to clarify the method of selecting the Challenger of Record for the 34th America's Cup.
Mascalzone Latino, the original Challenger of Record, announced on May 12 that it could not proceed with its challenge. Golden Gate Yacht Club appointed the Swedish team Artemis to fill the role which involves representing all challengers in negotiations with race management.
Emirates Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton said that with so much public money and sponsorship involved in the New Zealand challenge it was reasonable to seek clarification on how Artemis was selected.
Dalton likened the move to a rugby team going to the referees' association to get clarification of a change to the rules of rugby.
'We can see circumstances arising where the smaller commercial teams could be disadvantaged by the marriage between these two 'super powers' - Oracle as the Defender and Artemis as the Challenger of Record.
'The team is seeking clarification now rather than waiting for that to happen.'
by Richard Gladwell
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