America's Cup - Off the Record: 13 April 2009

2:23 AM Mon 13 Apr 2009 GMT

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Much of what we have written since the Appeal Court Decision of 2 April has come from various sources, international and local, close to the America's Cup action, who won't be quoted but are reasonably happy to talk off the record, on a 'not to be attributed' basis.

The situation, as we hear it today, runs something like this:

Alinghi is said to be engaging boat builders and has an accelerated building program underway - picked up since the 2 April Decision.

There has been little real contact between the two parties Golden Gate YC and Societe Nautique de Geneve, save for an opening email from the Swiss side which ruled out a Multi Challenger event. Whether that is the current position is a matter of conjecture.

The Easter break has not helped the process between the parties, who are believed to be agreeing on their internal position before negotiating with the other.

It is expected that this process will commence in the next week or two, with (maybe optimistically) a resolution one way or the other by the end of April.

Alinghi skipper, Brad Butterworth, is said to be celebrating his 50th birthday, this weekend in the company of long time friend, Dan Meyers of 'The Numbers'. The rest of the Alinghi key players are believed to be in Geneva - the break in communication is probably not helping the internal consultation process.

There is talk of more litigation in the wind, with no indication of what that could be about - our guess is that it over the dates for the Match, which were set in possible contradiction to the terms of the Deed of Gift (this could come from either side as a matter of clarification), or the Customs House Registry of the Golden Gate YC challenger, which was raised previously by Alinghi during the Hearings and not really resolved.

More to come ....

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.Com

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America's Cup - Off the Record: 13 April 2009

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