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2:25 AM Mon 1 Jun 2009 GMT
 | | 'The world awaits the start of the America's Cup/Photo: Carlo Borlenghi'
www.americascup.com
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Sail-World is happy to publish our readers' views an opinions on the America's Cup. Please address your contributions to nzeditor@sail-world.com:
Sender: Nelson Garcez /b>
The Auld Mug is getting rusted. When two spoiled brats could hijack the magic of the oldest sport tradition in the world and, like Mr. Graham Carter mentions in his e-mail, interest in the sailing community is gone, it is time to start over.
Let's get inspired by the the dreams of Stevens and Schuyler, the actions of Lipton and Vanderbilt, the inspiration of Bond, Turner, Blake, and start a new challenge. It is now upon the NYYC, the RNZYS, the RYS and many other SERIOUS yacht clubs around the world to set the base of what will soon become a tradition.
Don't forget that it all started with an 'one hundred guinea cup'. May be dropping a little bit more we can get it back.
Nelson Garcez
Sender: Graham C Carter (NZL
I and a group of friends travelled to be near Valencia for the most recent staging of this event - to partake of the atmosphere and hype and (hopefully) to see our country do well. I have watched New Zealand's interest in this sporting event increase over all the years since Australia's great win and then our own. I have repeatedly defended the America's Cup against the detractors who decried the 'waste of all that money', my argument being that National pride and a well-planned and competitive international spectacle raise morale, unify people and for a time put aside the cares of the world in a priceless way.
Not any more! We have seen AC court battles before, in fact they were part of the spectacle like John McEnroe's ranting at tennis officials, but the legal fighting has not in the past fallen to the puerile, cheating spoilt-child level of the current situation.
Conversations with friends about the AC are brief now, interest has largely gone, and the once proud event has finally become just a boat race (if that ever happens) and a waste of time and money. I never thought I would be saying that, how sad!!
Graham C Carter
Sender: Alistair Skinner
'I never thought I'd see Larry as a white knight'
Someone had to stand up to Bertarelli's 'My Bat and My Ball' attitude. That had to be someone with money.
The comments about the Italian Challenge? They are just trying to jump on the bandwagon and make a name for themselves. With a court decision made what right do they have to expect a delay?
Get on with it SNG - you are the defender - Alinghi are just the team - so many commentators have forgotten (or never knew the mechanics of The Cup. If the Swiss club had a bit more honour they would tell their boy to play by the rules.
For AC32, our club Shanghai Boat & Yacht Club and our challenger withdrew at the 11th hour (15 minutes to 4pm Swiss time) because we felt we were not secure enough in our funding to do the Club, the Team and most important of all, The Cup itself justice.
And for the record we were a 100% DoG compliant yacht club.
I just wish these self serving individuals would also put the history, tradition and image of the oldest international sporting trophy in the world ahead of their own egos.
Alistair Skinner
Founding Commodore
Shanghai Boat & Yacht Club
Sender: Louis Trouble
Why do GGYC say that the Italian challenge has no time to build their boat and is a nonsense when they put their challenge in SNG only had 10 months like now.
It seems their self serving attitude has finally court up with them.
Louis
Sail-World: We're not sure, but the fact is that there are probably only six months left in reality to design and build a boat and have it sailing in time to race in January 2010. The Italians also talked in one breath about making a challenge, and in the next about wanting a delay in the Match so they could be ready. Further GGYC probably look at the matter from their own position in that they had to design, build and launch a boat, while at the same time SNG was denying their challenge, and that could have all be for naught.
Sender: R Maxwell
One of the most surprising things in this fascinating legal and PR action against a corrupt defender is that, and correct me if I'm wrong, Emirates Team NZ was one of the signatories on an Alinghy scribed document asking for BOR to withdraw its' appeal against the reinstatement of CNEV as the challenger of record. And did ETNZ not then celebrate the reinstatement of BOR?
R Maxwell
Sail-World:Yes, that document did come out of one of the meetings, after they had pretty well got all the arrangements in place for a multi-challenger event. ETNZ are a professional racing team, they exist to race, not play around in the Courts. They have consistently done whatever they have to do to get an America's Cup running as soon as possible - regardless of who the Challenger of Record may be. ETNZ might not have liked many of the conditions they were being asked to race under, but they do not have the luxury of others of being able to pick and chose. Grant Dalton said quite openly that their (ETNZ's) best option from the Court of Appeals was for CNEV/SNG to prevail, as that would have got ETNZ back into the America's Cup more quickly than had the 33rd match had to be sailed in multihulls with only SNG and GGYC participating. ETNZ may well have celebrated the reinstatement of BMWOR. A lot of people did. Maybe their hope was that SNG would allow a multi challenger mutual consent event, with just a substitution of the Challenger of Record, as all 19 teams had been working towards for six months. However SNG changed their stance after the Appeal Court decision and opted to only sail in Multihulls, and tried to get other potential challengers to build similar sized and type of boats and for the event to be further delayed. That is not consistent with ETNZ's position, which is to get racing underway in a conventional America's Cup as soon as possible.
Sender: Larry Goss
Message:
This is a petty argument is between two rich people and has accomplished nothing other then the loss of interest in sailing by the masses; the very people that buy the stuff advertised on the sails of America's Cup yachts. Further argument will do nothing except contribute to the ultimate demise of the sport.
All arguments relating to the America's Cup that can not be resolved, should be settled on the waters off Newport, Rhode Island, the historic home of the sport. Afterwards, the winner should be entitled to take the race anywhere.
LGoss
Sender: Ken LeMee
Message: This whole AC court stuff needs to be the 'DEATH of the AMERICA'S CUP.'
The decision to drop 19 other teams in favour of the 2 multi-hull racers just shows the knee-jerk remains of this once great sport.
This isn't match racing...just whoever gets off the line best will fly off and the race is over barring mechanical failure after 10 minutes.
The AC Cup should be taken by Ernesto and dropped down the Marianas Trench and let sailing evolve to its rightful place....The Louis Voutton Series...A real World Cup of Sailing. Where protests can be decided by CAS (court of arbitration for sport, like every other major World sport) and not decided by the biased US Courts....
Drop the Cup and move the sport on, before it goes back to anominity as prior to 1980's.
Sender: Jane May
Message: Could you please clear something up for us? When you say that the boat needs to be constructed in Switzerland, how will Alinghi prove it has finished it's construction phase? Do they need to launch it in Switzerland? Otherwise, when they take it apart to move it to an 'arm of the sea', how will we know that they are actually using all the pieces they supposedly constructed in their country of origin....please don't tell me we have to 'take their word for it'?
Sail-World replies:
In sailing there is a very long and strong principle that you do 'have to take someone's word'. The reason being that if this were not the case, then all sorts of allegations could be bandied about and an International Jury would spend its whole time investigating these from an independent perspective, and generally they have better things to do.
However there is an equally strong principle in sailing that lying, or even being selective or parsimonious with the truth is also a very serious matter, and that is why the penalties for this are quite severe - often resulting in an international suspension from the sport for a period of up to two years.
Then the America's Cup. In the first instance, people and certificates they issue are taken at face value. However if those are challenged (with some basis in fact for that challenge) then the matter would be taken to an Int Jury or the NY Supreme Court (if it were a complaint under the Deed of Gift and no Int Jury had been appointed.)
I don't think there has been a case in Cup history on the Constructed in Country (CIC) provisions of the Deed of Gift and Event Protocols. If there were I would expect that (a) there would have to be some basis of the allegation - by way of photo or document, and that the other party would have to respond with a photo or document to prove that they had complied with CIC in respect of the component used in the Match.
The charge should be an easy one to defend and difficult to prove - which is probably why they are uncommon.
For Alinghi to prove that they had built the boat in Switzerland, they would have to show invoices and delivery documents for the carbon and materials in the requisite amount being delivered to the Swiss building facility. They would have been wise to take time stamped photos of the construction process, and maybe have these notarised in some way by an independent witness.
Often the media are invited to the build facility and are allowed to see and report and publish limited photos - this happened with the Plastic Fantastics in NZ, plus the Big Boat and others have been photographed being trucked to the launch facility in NZ.
If Alinghi did launch and sail in Switzerland, that would clear the matter to a large extent.
People are aware that Alinghi have time booked in Minnen (USA) for the construction of sails, however the view is that these are legal being outside CIC rules provided they are used for check purposes only and the sails used in DoG match must be built in Switzerland. Whether they have such a facility (including sailcloth build) is another issue.
Spars must also be CIC, but these are commonly constructed in the building facility.
Quite what they do for blocks and winches and running gear is another matter - it would be very difficult to comply with the letter of the CIC rule for a boat constructed anywhere but USA.
Sorry about the length of this answer, but I hope it helps - might spin it into a column before we get too much older.
Sender: Ross Harraway
Message: Regarding the A.C. I'm fed up to the back teeth with what's going on.The only people making any money are the lawyers..I mentioned to you some time ago that I believe the cup should be run by a group of persons from different countries,and have control of everything from start to finish..This way there'd be no more court cases..I feel someone should get off their butt,arrange canceling all on the books now and start afresh.I guess wishful thinking..Thanks Richard...R.Harraway
Sender: John Meredith
Message: Richard: Regarding your article on the now-likely multihull DoG match between Alighi and BMW Oracle, SNG DOES NOT have the legal right to issue a date for the match. Should SNG publish a date of May 2010, all that need be done is for GGYC to then publish an announcement that the match must be sailed on or before 8 February 2010, per the NY Supreme Court order. SNG is then required to publish an announcement of the Southern Hemisphere venue for the match by 8 August 2009. Failure to do so will constitute forfeiture of the Cup, and GGYC can easily obtain an order from the court to that effect. The issue is pretty simple, really.
by Various correspondents
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