The billionaire heads of two feuding America’s Cup syndicates are expected to meet this weekend in California to try to get sailing’s premier event out of the courts and back on the water in its traditional format.
It would be the first face-to-face chat between Swiss biotech tycoon Ernesto Bertarelli, head of two-time defending champion Alinghi, and his counterpart with BMW Oracle Racing, Silicon Valley maverick Larry Ellison, since the dispute over rules for the next America’s Cup began in July last year.
“I know Ernesto is over there and plans to meet with Larry, when and where unknown,” Alinghi skipper Brad Butterworth said in an e-mail to The Associated Press on Thursday.
“As for what will come out I am optimistic we will move forward with a multichallenger regatta,” Butterworth said.
Russell Coutts, one of the most dominant skippers in America’s Cup history who now heads BMW Oracle Racing’s crew, agreed with Butterworth, his former crewmate with both Alinghi and Team New Zealand.
“We’ve had a teleconference but it’s not the same thing as a face-to-face meeting,” Coutts told the AP by phone after arriving in Ireland on a business and golf trip. “I think there’s a big chance of solving it.”
Coutts said he didn’t know when or where the meeting would take place. He believed it would involve only Ellison and Bertarelli.
“That’s the best chance of breaking the stalemate, rather than sitting with a bunch of lawyers,” Coutts said. “It’s probably the best chance to get it back on the water.”
Sir Keith Mills of Britain’s TeamOrigin, who offered this year to try to help settle the spat, said in an e-mail that he knew about the meeting, “but we have a better chance of success if the details remain confidential for the time being.”
Ellison and Bertarelli, who sail aboard the Cup sloops they help bankroll, built a strong friendship earlier this decade and spoke often of making the 157-year-old competition more fan-friendly.
Coutts sailed unbeaten through three straight America’s Cup finals, the first two with his native New Zealand and the third with Alinghi in 2003. He was later fired after a disagreement with Bertarelli and sat out last year’s America’s Cup.
BMW Oracle Racing, backed by San Francisco’s Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), and Alinghi, supported by Societe Nautique de Geneve, have been squabbling over rules for the next America’s Cup since just after Alinghi beat Team New Zealand in the 32nd America’s Cup in July last year.
Golden Gate initially secured a court ruling that it was the Challenger of Record, meaning it had the right to negotiate terms of a traditional multichallenger regatta with Alinghi. When the two syndicates couldn’t agree to terms, it appeared they were headed toward a rare one-on-one showdown, or Deed of Gift match, in giant multihulls.
But in a surprise decision in late July, the New York Supreme Court’s Appellate Division ruled 3-2 that Spain’s Club Nautico Espanol de Vela, not GGYC, should be the Challenger of Record. That appeared to send the Cup back to its traditional format of several challengers vying in monohulls for the right to face the defender in the America’s Cup match.
GGYC quickly filed an appeal with the New York State Court of Appeals in Albany. The GGYC’s brief is due to be filed on Monday.
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