A lot of pissing and moaning right now and I can see why people roll their eyes when they see the America’s Cup go to the courts. I haven’t yet had a chance to completely soak in all the documents, but there are allegations that SNG (Alinghi) is planning an “escape route” (my words) by disolving their association with their yacht club and handing the cup over to Team New Zealand who would, in turn, choose SNG as the challenger of record. All this sounds a bit far fetched for me - I wonder if this is designed to try and get Team New Zealand off the fence per se.

What I didn’t report on earlier is that Alinghi had requested that Oracle participate in the Cup’s arbitration process but Oracle refused citing that the names of the people sitting on the arbitration panel were secret and were also people put in place by AGM who is managed by Alinghi. I believe Alinghi intends to have the arbitration anyway.

BYM News Article

Also, because I can’t link to a specific article, I have included the questions asked by Sailing Scuttlebutt of the ACM (America’s Cup Management). This article appeared on the Sailing Scuttlebutt front page this morning.

ACM: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
America’s Cup Management (ACM) is the entity that Alinghi formed to handle the administration of the 32nd America’s Cup. ACM remains in place, with Chief Operating Officer Michel Hodara responding here to some of Scuttlebutt’s lingering questions regarding the 33rd edition:* By the defender participating in the challenger trials (per the Protocol of the 33rd event), is it not possible that the defender may influence the ultimate outcome of the challenger trials? Given that the threat of elimination does not exist for the defender, it would seem conceivable that the defender may choose to lose to a lesser team, which might help this team advance past a stronger challenger that could ultimately pose a problem for the defender in the America’s Cup. At the very least, the participation of the defender does open the door for this type of concern.
MH: “In order to reduce costs, it has been decided to impose to sail only one boat at a time. Therefore, it was reasonable that the Defender could take part in the Challenger series, otherwise, the Defender would have no opportunity to race an opponent while the challengers raced in the Challenger Series.“

* What teams are currently participating with the defender in the design rules for the new class of America’s Cup boat?
MH: “Starting mid-September, the entered Challengers will participate in the rule writing through a consultative process that will take place over several meetings. At this moment of time the entered Challengers are Desafio Espanol, Team Shosholoza, TeamOrigin, Team New Zealand and the German Team who have submitted their entry and who will formally be accepted in the next days.”

* The most recent press announcement by ACM stated that the Protocol for the 33rd Cup was proposed by ACM. Isn’t the matter of protocol something that the Defender and Challenger agree on?
MH: “That is correct and is exactly what happened. The Protocol is the result of many meetings and discussions with the Challenger of Record and its representatives, which lasted most of the duration of the 32nd AC Match. The process was the same than in 2003 with GGYC and BOR.”

* Does ACM speak for SNG?
MH: “Because Yacht Clubs tend to appoint the appropriate professionals to deal with all AC operational and administrative matters, ACM sometimes speaks on behalf of Alinghi’s club, the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG).”

A 2005 Raid Video

Happy Friday!  Compliments of The Horse’s Mouth

The Societe Nautique de Geneve (Alinghi camp) responds.  They are apparently disappointed that Oracle has followed through with the court case.  Sounds a little whiny to me and almost like they feel like the case will have teeth.  If they haven’t broken the Deed of Gift, why would they care?  I smell fear.  85% of SailingWorld.com readers side with Oracle and the Golden Gate YC.  Take the poll HERE.

According to an article on the Golden Gate Yacht Club website, the New York State Supreme Court orders Alinghi Club to speed up the legal process after granting an order sought by the Golden Gate Yacht Club (BMW Oracle Racing).  Tom Ehman, Head of External Affairs for BMW Oracle Racing said:

“We would still prefer to negotiate a solution outside the court, but we see SNG as violating its responsibilities as Trustee, and we are fully prepared to go the legal distance if needed to stop the America’s Cup being subverted into a hopelessly one-sided event,”

This action seeks a preliminary injunction to obtain critical information related to the club’s challenge under the Deed of Gift. GGYC asserts that SNG (Alinghi’s yacht club) must accept the challenge by the USA team. This case could be heard by the courts as early as October 2007.

C class catamarans have a new breed. The Canadian Team, who is slated to challenge Steve Clark’s Cogito next month, have just unveiled their new beast, “Off Yer Rocker”. She is a foiling beast of a hard articulated wing C-class catamaran. Check out the innerview on Sailing Anarchy HERE and the Canadian C Class Cat Home page (with some video) HERE. This could be the first time the C-Class Championship is taken away from Cogito in nearly a decade. The C-class Championship is also commonly known as “The Little America’s Cup” although they were instructed to cease and desist use of the name by the Alinghi camp several years ago….bastards.

For those of you boiling in the heat and dryness like we are in South Carolina at the moment, here’s a cool video in cool weather to bring it down a notch.  Another oldie that circulated quite a bit a while back.  The crew is doing a pretty good job taking pressure off the jib, but she’s just a little late in anticipating the waves…it gets them eventually.  Kudos to the guy with the headcam for getting some good footage.

An interesting America’s Cup article by Eric Sharp can be found at the Detroit Free Press.

Ok, hopefully for the 3rd and final time, I attempted to make the second half of the rudder mold. If you remember, the first time, the gelcoat pulled away from the plug leaving a very uneven surface. The second time, the mold warped (and cracked after I tried to straighten it) after I heated it to accelerate curing of the first rudder. This time, I think I have it! The first half of the mold was still in good shape although it did show a slight curve from top to bottom. I fixed that by vacuum bagging two 3/4″ threaded rods (secured from the scrap bin at work) to the back of the mold and clamping it straight. I remade the second half of the mold using 3 layers of 3.5oz cloth and two layers of 17oz nytex cloth - regular ‘ol polyester resin. Once that cured and before separating the two halves, I vacuum bagged two more threaded rods to the back of this half too. They weigh like 4 pounds each, but they’re flat as a board and never warping again!  I did, however, scratch the thing while cleaning up the trailing edge…I should be able to repair it.

I promise some more US1M advancement this weekend…for now, take a moment and behold: the Hobie 18 wave jump.

Dean Barker has published a correction that he is not in any talks with Oracle about a position at the helm.  He has signed a letter of intent with Team NZ.  This according to Sailing Scuttlebutt.

It’s closer than you think. It’s going to be a legendary battle in and out of the court room if this thing happens. For those who have been living in a vacuum, here it is in a nutshell; After the 2007 America’s Cup, Spain filed with Alinghi as the challenger of record within minutes of the winning Alinghi boat crossing the finish line. According to the rules laid out by the defender (Alinghi) and the Challanger (Spain), the boat is changing to a 90′ monodull with ungodly number of crew and lifting keels, they’ll give everyone details in a few months, and you have until 2009 to build and test for the race. This is not much time and considering the rumour that Alinghi has already been developing theirs, this puts all the challengers at a significant disadvantage. Also in the new agreement, Alinghi has sole control over many of the parameters of the event such as; whether a competitor can actually compete, picking a race committee, picking race management personel, etc. No other competitor would have agreed to such terms as they clearly seem to be tainted toward the defender, Alinghi. Why would the Spanish team agree to these terms? It would appear they might have done so to keep the event in Valencia, Spain.

But WAIT! There are some checks and balances in place in the deed of gift - the document that rules the Americas Cup. It specifically requires certain things for a challenger to qualify as a “challenger” - and for good reason. The Spanish challenging yacht club only filed for yacht club status weeks before the event concluded and their “club” is the warehouse from which their AC campaign was launched. They have no members, no boats, and no regattas…enter USA’s team; Oracle and American billionaire Larry Ellison. They’ve filed legal suit with the New York Court system that the Challenge was not valid and sent their own challenge to Alinghi … with boat parameters that point strongly toward multihulls.

From the Deed of Gift:

“Any organized yacht club of a foreign country, incorporated, patented, or licensed by the legislature, admiralty, or other executive deparment, having for its annual regatta an ocean watercourse on the sea, or an arm of the sea, or on which combines both shall always be entitled to the right of sailing a match for this Cup…”

This is going to boil down to the ancient definition / context of the phrases “organized yacht club” and “having for its annual regatta” - as worded here, does it refer to future tense or past? Comments?

In a twisted piece of unforeseen fate, the AC Deed of Gift has two provisions for racing and the second almost dictates a multihull (realized and exploited by the USA in the legally contested 1988 Cup match); One provision is when the challenger and defender agree on the protocol; they can pretty much define the event anyway they like. The second provision is for when they do not agree; the challenger is required to define the challenging vessel with rig type, max dimensions for waterline, beam, and draught while the defender picks the location. No matter how you draw up these simple parameters outlined in the Deed, a multihull vessel will fit the parameters and be the fastest. It can’t be ruled out by these definitions in the Deed of Gift (our 8.5 foot by 20 foot catamaran obtains very similar speeds as the current 70′ AC yachts). So, if a disagreeable challenge goes to the water in this day and age, a multihull it will be. Also note that the Deed of Gift specifies that in this scenario, the racing will consist of three races; the first and third must be 20 miles to windward and return and the second an equilateral triangle with 13 mile legs the first of which to windward. That’s going to be a bitter, expensive, and exciting three race series!

Oracle has also signed up Russell Coutts (who is becoming a big multihull fan) and rumour has it that even Dean Barker (from Team New Zealand) is negotiating with Oracle for a position at the helm (evidence that Team New Zealand thinks the next AC might be a one on one battle between Oracle and Alinghi since Barker is known to be a strong Kiwi patriot) - Oracle appears to be highly motivated. The more I learn, the more I believe this could actually happen. Can you just imagine the bitterness being brought to the water between these guys on some 90 foot catamaran racing machines? It would probably be a one on one fight to the death on some real honest-to-god sailing speed machines. Who won’t find this exciting? Want to read more? Check this out this link from Scuttlebutt.

Add 30 feet of hull to this 60′ Stars and Stripes 1988 AC test boat and you start to get an idea. Rigid wing sails are not out of the question either (as was also executed in ‘88 by the Conner led team).

I received an email from Jason about this video - and this one circulated wildly for a while but I don’t think it ever made it to our website. This is the European “Team Nissan” sailing in the same French trench where the current world sailing speed record was set (Finian Maynard). The weren’t able to accomplish anything near record setting speeds but they did give a good show. This trench is quite shallow and you can see those effects quickly in this video.

I’m sitting on my couch with a sinus infection that’s attempting to push my eyeballs out of my head so I recognize the fact that I may not be approaching this with all of my faculties intact. Does this belong in “Noteably Nutty” or should we create a new category for “What in the hell?”. This was found over at the Sail Away Ladies blog

This video has been around for a while so it’s likely that if you haven’t yet seen it you’re not a catamaran sailor.  Whatever the case may be, this is a terrific video that should provide you a few minutes of distraction from your boring life in that cube.  The spitfire is a boat just over 16′ and is highly popular in the UK.  If you are a crazed adrenaline-overdose junkie and somehow find the first part of this movie boring - hang in there, it only gets better.  For more about the class, go to http://www.spitfiresailing.org.uk