BMW Oracle and Golden Gate YC get their way. Does this mean the 33rd AC will be a monster multi match?
Shortly after Justice Cahn made his judgement, in which the Spanish CNEV Challenger of Record was found to be invalid, the yacht club that Alinghi represents, SNG, appealed against the decision. They succeeded.
Then came the action from Golden Gate Yacht Club and BMW Oracle to have Alinghi’s appeal quashed.
Today, (Thursday 2 April 2009), the result of that further appeal has now been declared by a New York court which has confirmed that the role of Challenger of Record should indeed remain with the Golden Gate Yacht Club and Larry Ellison’s BMW Oracle Racing team.
The result is a blow for Alinghi and the SNG who only yesterday announced that Valencia would be hosting the next America’s Cup. Today’s news would appear to knock those plans on the head, at least where a multi challenger event is concerned. Plans for the new America’s Cup class and the Challenging teams that had expressed an interest in competing in the next event will also be affected.
Among such teams, Great Britain’s Team Origin will surely be feeling that it too has been dealt a major blow.
So where to from here? Later we will provide a more detailed analysis of the situation as we wait for Alinghi and BMW Oracle to provide their official statements. But for the time being it would appear that the 33rd America’s Cup will take place in giant multihulls, at a venue that Alinghi chooses, no sooner than 10 months hence. This would mean January 2010, but another detail in the Deed of Gift in relation to a Northern hemisphere Cup match could delay this into the spring of 2010.
Assuming that a multihull America’s Cup is on the cards, what is the current status of the two teams?
BMW Oracle have been sailing their 90ft trimaran since last year and have recently resumed training and testing after a winter break. But is this really the boat they’ll use given that they do not know the venue for the next match?
Alinhghi has a multihull that has been built but not assembled. It’s size and configuration, cat or tri, has yet to be revealed. There has even been speculation that the team may have been looking into hydrofoils. So far the team has been tight lipped on such details.
Watch out for more news.