Spanish club will be America's Cup challenger

[sneuman]

NEW YORK (AP) - A New York appeals court has declared that a
Spanish yacht club is the challenger of record for the next
America's Cup, a decision that removes a California club from that
position.
The state Supreme Court's Appellate Division ruled 3-2 Tuesday
that Club Nautico Espanol de Vela should be the challenger of
record, which gives it the right to negotiate terms of the next
competition with the current Cup holder, Alinghi of Switzerland.
This decision reverses a lower-court ruling that made the Golden
Gate Yacht Club of San Francisco the challenger.
The appeals court also gave CNEV 10 months to prepare for the
race, starting when it receives a copy of the appellate ruling.

[Pipeline]

Whomever is the challenger, I hope the boats are multihulls. I think the world needs to see the potential and excitement of big tris booming around the course...

[GordMay]

The legal battles continue in the America's Cup.

The Golden Gate Yacht Club has lodged an appeal against this week's decision of the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court. event.
BYM Sailing & Sports News

[David M]

Well, hopefully the Cup can still come to the SF Bay. The whole thing needs to be restructured so the winner is decided by who are the best sailors and not by who has the best attorneys or who rules in someones favor. The challenger aspect needs to be removed and replaced by a much more accurate system of determining who is the best by starting the boats as equal competitors. Until that can be done, the America's Cup will forever be ending up in the courts.

[TaoJones]

A generally reliable source today posted information that claims the court hearing the Golden Gate Yacht Club's appeal of the ruling as posted at #1, above, has reached a verdict that will be favorable to GGYC. He claims that the ruling will be released in three weeks, and that it will result in the demise of CNEV and a running of the next edition of the A-Cup in trimarans - but, he says, ". . . it ain't gonna be [in] Valencia . . . it will be much windier."

If this turns out to be inaccurate, well, never mind. But, if true, could this portend an America's Cup in SF Bay?

TaoJones

[sandy daugherty]

America's cup on trimarans in SFO? OUCH! With those winds and speeds in the twenties, they will need fifty mile courses, and San Francisco is a very busy Port. Just check out the AIS site for a picture of the traffic!

[swagman]

I can only shake my head that this event is again in the hands of lawyers as opposed to sailors.

But from a personal perspective having attended and experienced the facilities in Oz, in NZ, in the USA and lastly Spain - there was no doubt about who built the best facilities for both sailors and visitors alike - and who got the most international coverage - and attracted the most visitors every day.

It was Valencia.

IMHO it would be a real shame if these facilities could not be used again - and excuse me saying it - racing equally rated monohulls.

JOHN

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by sandy daugherty

America's cup on trimarans in SFO? OUCH! With those winds and speeds in the twenties, they will need fifty mile courses, and San Francisco is a very busy Port. Just check out the AIS site for a picture of the traffic!

Good point! I imagine if the event were held in San Francisco, it would be offshore, out of the high volume shipping traffic going through the Gate.

I do think the Bay Area would be an ideal A-Cup venue, but who knows?

TaoJones

[Karl_in_Chicago]

I agree about the positive aspects of Valencia, and racing equally rated mono's there. I also would like to see AC races at other venues . . . and with other hull types. Maybe a great way to bypass these constant legal challenges, and lawyers fees, would be for the powers that be to re-engineer the whole process and agree on a new format. While I'm no IOC fan and not holding them up as the ideal organizational model, we could still take a page or two out of the Olympic format and build upon that. There's a Summer and a Winter Olympics, spaced two years apart. How about a mono and a multi AC alternating? Similarly how about some deal to rotate the hosting among bidding cities so that places that build world class racing/hosting facilities, like Valencia, can take turns bringing the AC to their stage (I'm seeing it continuing the tour of cities with the finals being rotated).

Mono's in a tacking duel is a thing to behold, as are multi's flying balls-to-the-wall in healthy winds. It would be great with the serious advancements in TV coverage capabilities to be able to showcase both on a regular basis.

[TaoJones]

As suggested here early last month, the Court of Appeals in New York has ruled against Ernesto Berterelli and SNG, voting 6-0 that the sham Spanish "Yacht Club" (CNEV) is not allowed under the Deed of Gift, and Golden Gate Yacht Club is to be the Challenger of Record. Here's the AP report on the decision:

Court: U.S. club challenger for America's Cup - ESPN

Still unknown is whether the next A-Cup will be with 90-foot trimarans, or more conventional monohulls of lesser length.

This is going to be interesting.

TaoJones

[sandy daugherty]

Since this will be a two boat show, and would require several hours to tow the boats to the open ocean, perhaps they should reconsider the sizes of the boats, and modernize the Formula 40s and keep the course in the Bay. If it could be watched from the Hills it could have a tremendous tourist draw.