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More Missiles
The America’s Cup, currently, is little better than a war zone and Emirates Team New Zealand fired two missiles into the battlefield yesterday. The Kiwis entered two actions into the New York State Supreme Court in an effort to bring the defenders of the 157-years old trophy into line.

The Societe Nautique de Geneve, Team Alinghi and its owner Ernesto Bertarelli, together with the organising America’s Cup Management, are jointly and severally charged with breach of contract in not organising an event in 2009, as contracted with the New Zealand team, and perhaps more pertinently, of a breach of trust in endeavouring to organise a one-sided competition under the rules and regulations it announced with the connivance of the Spanish yacht club that was subsequently disqualified as a challenger.

The event is already in court following Judge Herman Cahn’s decision to disqualify the bogus Spanish club because the Swiss submitted further papers that have delayed the settlement order. The Kiwis had a contract with AC Management for an event in 2009, but already ACM ha declared that this will not occur. Emirates Team New Zealand seeks damages as per its contract, in excess of US$12 millions.

The other action has been brought by the Kiwis following a refusal by Bertarelli to renegotiate the draconian protocol that ACM established when it colluded with the now-disqualified Spanish yacht club. Grant Dalton, the managing director of ETNZ said, “Bertarelli had the chance to accept a reasonable proposal from BMW Oracle, which was also signed by the majority of the challengers, and which would have allowed the America’s Cup to be held in 2009. He would not do so.”

BMW Oracle should be the new Challenger of Record when Judge Cahn delivers his settlement order. The two New Zealand court actions will not further delay the event, particularly when it is clear that the Kiwis mean business in the matter of the Trust action; it has appointed the New York law firm of Boies, Schiller and Flexner. David Boies, who will lead the case, successfully represented the US Government in its antitrust action against Microsoft.

Dalton was at pains to point out that this expensive process would be funded independently from its revenue sources from sponsors and the NZ Government but said that Alinghi is:” abusing the powers granted to the defender under the Deed of Gift, and has harmed the event and challenging syndicates. — Bob Fisher

Alinghi’s response to the legal action:

“We are disappointed to learn of this legal action by Emirates Team New Zealand, given their previous public acceptance and commitment to the competition.

These actions are totally without merit, wildly miss the target and will be defended rigorously. We share the sailing community’s frustration in the delays affecting the America’s Cup but Alinghi, as trustee, is duty bound to defend its position in the current legal action and to preserve the integrity of the America’s Cup.

We have repeatedly made it clear that Alinghi welcomes a swift court resolution and wants to get the action back on the water as soon as possible.” — www.alinghi.com

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 7th, 2008 at 10:53 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.