Lawyers will take over the America's Cup today as the regatta moves off the water and into the protest room in the latest chapter of a spy scandal reminiscent of the Cup's bad old days in the 1980s.
A five-man arbitration panel will sit for two days to hear protests by Team Dennis Conner and Italy's Prada against rival challengers OneWorld, the US$75 million team backed by telecoms investor Craig McCaw and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
The hearing is the latest chapter in an 18-month spy scandal. Conner's team and Prada, the defending challengers champions, accuse OneWorld of possessing and using boat design secrets taken from other teams.
It is a tale of intrigue and many, many millions of dollars which might seem more appropriate in a Hollywood courtroom drama.
Whistle blower
Indeed one of the characters is a high-flying southern US lawyer depicted in the movie The Insider" which won volatile actor Russell Crowe an Oscar nomination for his role as a scientist who blew the whistle on corporate tobacco giants.
"It's a very high-stakes game. And when there are high stakes, people in competition try to win any way they can," McCaw told The New York Times last week.
"The lesson now is: `Be honorable at your own peril,'" said McCaw, a self-avowed "innocent" who described the America's Cup as
tougher than anything he ever encountered in business.
The case has gained an even sharper edge after OneWorld thrashed bitter rival Conner -- four times a winner of sailing's greatest prize -- 4-0 in a quarterfinals repechage last week to dump the sport's most prominent figure out of the regatta.
The challengers semifinals are due to begin on Monday but OneWorld's defeat of Conner -- and potentially all other results in the Louis Vuitton Cup challengers series -- could be reversed if the panel upholds the protest and disqualifies OneWorld.
Team Dennis Conner and Prada protested on the eve of the quarterfinals repechage when they said they had received new information about the OneWorld spy saga.
OneWorld's multinational team include members of several previous syndicates, including boat designer Laurie Davidson, who helped Team New Zealand defend the America's Cup in 2000.
OneWorld have admitted inadvertently having confidential design documents from Team New Zealand, Prada and 1999 challengers America True and were penalized a point in August after the panel accepted OneWorld's argument that they had not used the information in the design of their two current boats.
But another former Team New Zealand member, operations manager and lawyer Sean Reeves, fell out with OneWorld, who accused him of trying to sell design secrets to rival teams. A US judge ruled in OneWorld's favor in that case in September.
Reeves is now shaping up as a significant witness in the weekend's protest drama. OneWorld won a permanent injunction against Reeves but say they are happy for him to give evidence at the weekend because they believe it will prove their innocence.
Water world
For Team Dennis Conner, legal wranglings off the water are as much a part of the regatta as tacking duels on it. "The America's Cup is a legal battle that happens to be sailed on the water," team lawyer Luis Saenz has said.
Saenz has been working with Richard Scruggs, a Mississippi lawyer and long-time friend of Conner who won fame for his class actions against giant US tobacco companies.
Scruggs has reportedly written to OneWorld suggesting they withdraw from the regatta to save the event's dignity.
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