America's Cup - I Don't Get it

[TaoJones]

From the Wikipedia entry on Michael Fay:

America's Cup

Fay backed New Zealand's first America's Cup campaign in 1987, which won through to the challenger's final before losing to a US entry from San Diego.
In 1988 Fay backed a challenge to the San Diego Yacht Club, who had just won the America's Cup. Rather than wait three to four years and join a general international challenge as had been the custom for thirty-five years, he had his legal team review the original Deed of Gift. The Deed of Gift was the document drawn up by the owners of the 100 Guineas Cup, won by the yacht America, to offer the cup for international competition. The deed did not specify a time delay between challenges, nor were competitiors limited to compete in a particular class of boat, nor did boats have to be the same size or class. Fay financed the creation of KZ 1, a large single-hull yacht which complied with the original Deed of Gift but was much larger and hence faster than the 12-metre class boats which had been used for America's Cup competition for many years. Dennis Conner, skipper of the American defender, responded by building the multihull Stars & Stripes (US-1). Court actions followed which decided that both boats complied with the original Deed of Gift.[7] The Stars & Stripes catamaran easily won. The bad press generated by Fay's heavily litigious approach to yacht racing[8] heralded an era of better management and agreement for future challenges.
Michael Fay was knighted in 1990, for services to sport, something which remains controversial[4].
Sir Michael Fay was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame in 2002.

To see the entire entry, go to:

Michael Fay (banker) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

* * *

Love the part about "The bad press generated by Fay's heavily litigious approach to yacht racing[8] heralded an era of better management and agreement for future challenges." As if . . .

TaoJones