America's Cup fight finally out of courts
Source: Agencies |
February 5, 2010, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A QUALITY that has made the America's Cup one of the world's most enduring contests has been its ability to reinvent itself, and that will be on show again when two space-age yachts race off Spain next week.
The 33rd America's Cup, starting off Valencia on Monday, will be barely recognizable from 159 years ago when the wooden US yacht America beat a fleet of British clippers and schooners in a race around the Isle of Wight.
This time a huge catamaran, sailing for Ernesto Bertarelli's Swiss holder Alinghi, will race the equally enormous challenger BMW Oracle, an American trimaran backed by software billionaire Larry Ellison, in three races in the Mediterranean.
It will pit two of the world's richest men, and some of the best sailors in the world, against each other in 90-foot, hi-tech boats made of materials unimaginable a century ago, such as carbon fibre and kevlar.
Despite all the changes over time, the rules of the 2010 contest ironically have been determined by a "Deed of Gift" drawn up in 1887, which since has become one of sports history's most litigated documents.
Legal battles
Three years of legal battles since Alinghi successfully defended the Cup against Team New Zealand have determined that the 2010 event will be a three-race shootout without the usual preliminary challengers' regatta.
The acrimony off the water has been thinly veiled at times but both camps say they are ready to race.
"We are confident racing will go ahead as scheduled on Monday - weather permitting - and we are looking forward to finally getting this competition on the water," Alinghi team skipper and tactician Brad Butterworth said after the latest legal dust-up.
Only last week, uncertainty whether there would be any racing at all ended when a New York court determined it would hear a complaint by BMW Oracle over the origin of the Swiss boat's sails after the regatta.
The unpredictable mid-winter weather in the Mediterranean port will add an extra twist to the event, with BMW Oracle favoring heavier conditions.
A race jury decided that the principal race officer will determine what constitutes fair and safe conditions.
The 33rd America's Cup, starting off Valencia on Monday, will be barely recognizable from 159 years ago when the wooden US yacht America beat a fleet of British clippers and schooners in a race around the Isle of Wight.
This time a huge catamaran, sailing for Ernesto Bertarelli's Swiss holder Alinghi, will race the equally enormous challenger BMW Oracle, an American trimaran backed by software billionaire Larry Ellison, in three races in the Mediterranean.
It will pit two of the world's richest men, and some of the best sailors in the world, against each other in 90-foot, hi-tech boats made of materials unimaginable a century ago, such as carbon fibre and kevlar.
Despite all the changes over time, the rules of the 2010 contest ironically have been determined by a "Deed of Gift" drawn up in 1887, which since has become one of sports history's most litigated documents.
Legal battles
Three years of legal battles since Alinghi successfully defended the Cup against Team New Zealand have determined that the 2010 event will be a three-race shootout without the usual preliminary challengers' regatta.
The acrimony off the water has been thinly veiled at times but both camps say they are ready to race.
"We are confident racing will go ahead as scheduled on Monday - weather permitting - and we are looking forward to finally getting this competition on the water," Alinghi team skipper and tactician Brad Butterworth said after the latest legal dust-up.
Only last week, uncertainty whether there would be any racing at all ended when a New York court determined it would hear a complaint by BMW Oracle over the origin of the Swiss boat's sails after the regatta.
The unpredictable mid-winter weather in the Mediterranean port will add an extra twist to the event, with BMW Oracle favoring heavier conditions.
A race jury decided that the principal race officer will determine what constitutes fair and safe conditions.
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