Ellison Has His Day in Court Again - Now What ?
Submitted by Sail Southern California - Sailing Blog
Yesterday the New York Court of Appeals ruled that BMW Oracle and their Golden Gate Yacht Club is the Challenger of Record for the next America’s Cup. This in effect denied the paper yacht club set up between Valencia and Ernesto Bertarelli’s Alinghi. This was done at the close of the 2007 AC in an attempt to keep the next AC at the Valencia site.
Accordingly, no further appeals will be accepted by the court which was designated as decider in legal cases dating back to 1887 when the racing series began. What this essentially means is that now Larry Ellison and Bertarelli have to come together and decide what kind of boat to sail. Bertarelli still gets to choose the venue, so we wonder why he tried to take the legal path he did. The choices for boats could be the Version 5 IACC yacht design that was used in the 2007 matches as early as next April or compete in a Deed of Gift match between the two racing syndicates in gigantic 90ftx90ft trimarans next February. Ellison has already built his $10 million dollar super-tri and has been testing it for some time now in San Diego. So, stay tuned. The shorseide drama may be coming to a conclusion and we may be able to get back to racing.
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