11:29 AM Tue 3 Mar 2009 GMT
Moves at the Competitors Meeting for the 33rd America's Cup could be aimed at negating an adverse outcome in the America's Cup from the Appeal Court of New York State.
The Appeal Case is essentially a decision as to who is the valid Challenger of Record for the 33rd Match for the America's Cup.
Societe Nautique de Geneve, as Defender of the America's Cup took the challenge made by Club Nautico Espanol de Vela - a club that had five members, no yachts, had never sailed a yacht race and was later admitted to be a legal adjustment to suit some political agendas in its home town of Valencia.
Second in the line, was Golden Gate Yacht Club, a well established, functioning club, which more than fulfilled the requirements of the Deed of Gift for the America's Cup.
In the months of legal jockeying that have transpired since the acceptance of the CNEV Challenge on 3rd July 2007, the positions of the two parties have become closer and closer - yet agreement outside the Courtroom seems impossible.
Since achieving the 3-2 decision in the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court, at the end of July last year, the Alinghi parties have made a meal of their good luck, and cracked the pace with their organisation of a multi challenger regatta.
Attracting 18 entries, and having now held five of their Competitor Meetings, the 'progress' that has been made has largely negated any advantage that Golden Gate YC would achieve should they be successful on Appeal.
All that the Appeal Court can do at best is to disqualify the minnow-club CNEV, and put Golden Gate YC in its stead.
That would still leave the Challenger numbers at 18, maybe 19 depending on whether the local Spanish team Desafio Espanol stayed with CNEV, reverted to their national federation RFEV, or adopted some other Spanish entity.
While the 33rd Protocol (negotiated, in the very loosest use of the word, with CNEV) would be disavowed by Golden Gate YC, the reality is that any new document would have to be a near-clone of the first.
The real power still lies with the Defender - in a Mutual Consent game they hold 50% of the power.
The remaining 50% lies with the Challenger of Record, in this case GGYC - however they are obliged to act in the best interests, and on a democratic basis with the other Challengers. In theory there is one entity, the Challenger of Record, in reality there are 18 or more. That makes for a lot of division and conflicting agendas around the Competitor's table - and strings which can be plucked by the Defender to play almost any tune.
Given the way the sponsorship world has changed since July 2007; and with their appetites whetted by the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series; and given the time they have invested to date in the organisational process for the 33rd America's Cup, it seems hardly credible that there will, in practical terms, be a lot of change in the arrangements made to date. The thrust of the vexed document will remain the same.
In theory, GGYC can negotiate its own Protocol with the Defender. In reality all SNG and the Alinghi parties have to do is go public on the 'negotiations' and adopt the position that the group of 18 had all but agreed on the match conditions before the final Court ruling. So why should GGYC have any right to push, what is essentially their own barrow, on points of difference which are regarded as semantics by the majority of the other challengers??
Don't forget that the current Challenger group is dominated by first time challengers, and those from Europe. Birds of a feather do flock together. And as first time teams in a sponsorship market that grows more difficult by the day, they will be very much of the mindset that a good game is a quick game. In their eyes, an imperfect Match sailed in 2010 is infinitely better than a perfect one sailed in 2011 or 2012.
Of course, all the above comes to naught if the Alinghi parties stick to their guns and elect to sail a Deed of Gift Match in giant multihulls.
But in spite of all the positioning and puffery to the contrary, that outcome makes little sense.
To do so would release the Challenger group from the shackles of the 33rd Protocol, and they would be free agents. More events like the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series would surely follow - with venue bidding likely to offset costs - as the spurned Challengers put their own game together, and left the high rollers in their multihulls to both sail on the water and battle in Court.
No, that particular genie will not be let out of the Valencian bottle.
If Alinghi and SNG prevail in the Appeal Court, then the America's Cup game will proceed as it currently stands.
If they lose, then it is a simple and apparently magnanimous gesture for the Defender to accept the oft-touted Golden Gate YC offer of a multi-challenger event. And then proceed with a Cup as the game currently stands.
There may be a swap-out of a few expendable individuals, and a watering down of the some of the powers usurped by Alinghi, but the basics will largely stay the same. All that is required is for the Alinghi parties to surprise the pundits and ingest a spoonful or two of pragmatism.
It is unlikely that Golden Gate YC will lose the final Appeal, but win or lose the Battle of Albany, they have won the War.
Never again will any Defender accept a Challenge from a Yacht Club, that does not completely and comfortably fit within the box prescribed for a Challenger of Record, in the Deed of Gift.
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com
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