Team Seacats

The practice day went down without any major issues….quite an accomplishment and a testament to the effort put in by Gulfport Yacht Club and Fun In the Sun, Inc (Red Gear Racing). We had a few minor things to tweak on the boats after the first round of racing – namely, we found one cleat backwards and several spinnaker pole bridles needed to be tightened. We did also have two issues with spinnaker halyards that were resolved with some minor hardware replacement. This is a terrific day for the teething of 10 new boats – so we’re pretty happy.

The racing was pretty fierce out there on the practice course and several teams, who are expected to be strong, have shown an early speed advantage. We had the drawing tonight for the fleet assignments for the first scored races tomorrow and they are as follows:

B Fleet (racing 1st):

• Burd
• Carlson
• Figueroa
• Ingram
• Krantz
• Olson
• Tomko
• Whitte

A Fleet:

• Bauldry
• Casey
• Gillespi
• Hilk
• Marshack
• McDonald
• Miller
• Newkirk
• Spina

Yet to draw are the teams of Pitt, Wallace, and Jason….we’ll get them at the skipper’s meeting in the morning. Both of the 1st fleets will be scored 1 through 10 points. After the first round, the top five from each fleet compose “A” fleet while the bottom five from the two fleets compose “B” fleet. From then on, A fleet is scored 1-10 points and B fleet is scored 11 through 20. Each round, the top three teams from B fleet are promoted to A fleet and the bottom three from A fleet are relegated to B fleet. It’s a rotation system called “relegation / promotion series”.

Things are well underway here in Gulfport, FL putting the last finishing touches on the AHPC Capricorn F18 catamarans for the upcoming US Sailing Mulithull Championship. I’m the chairman for the event again this year and am joined by a crew of dedicated individuals from our local sailing area and from the Gulfport Yacht Club. The weather is looking spectacular and we’re expecting to have a great week watching the country’s 40 best catamaran sailors go head to head. We’ll be updating from the blog site here periodically throughout the days of the event and will have an article on the US Sailing Multihull Championship page every night. Stay tuned!

It’s signed and sealed but not yet delivered due to time constraints placed upon me by the US Sailing Championship for the Hobie Alter Cup next week. However, I am the new owner of a very well kept Boyer Mark IV A-class catamaran. I’m really looking forward to the simplicity of this boat, learning to sail it, and the carbon fiber tinkering I can do with it.

Speaking of the US Sailing Multihull Championship – stay tuned here for details and updates. We’re sailing on AHPC F18 Capricorns imported by Fun In the Sun, Inc down at the Gulfport (FL) Yacht Club. We’ve got a stellar line-up of talent who will be competing for the Hobie Alter Cup.

Not yet, plan “A” didn’t pan out quite like I thought it might….now if I can just figure out what plan “B” is.

Not only before “the ink dried” but before the pen even hit the paper, Alinghi files for appeal on the whole shebang today with the New York Supreme Court. From Alinghi’s website, Lucien Masmejan (SNG lead counsel), explains their latest maneuver…I’ve dissected it a little inserting my own commentary:

Why have you appealed?
Our goal is to have it decided on the water and have a competitive America’s Cup in 2009.

Cough, cough, Gaggg…huh? Seriously? Let’s roll through this briefly; I paraphrase; we filed for appeal asking for a stay (delay) so we can compete on the water, not sooner, in 2009. What’s wrong with 2008? Besides, your rights as a challenger are very clear – you can’t touch the date! You pick the place…focus here…please focus…we’re waiting for the place, not the date.

We are in the process of appealing and filing a motion to request an expedited appeal and to stay the case in order to attempt to fast track the legal process.

Here’s an idea; fast track it by NOT FILING APPEALS and specify the place for the event!

We have spent eight months engaged at trial court fighting a law suit brought by GGYC to force their way to the America’s Cup Match at the expense of 12 other challengers.

Ummm…no – actually GGYC tried several times to find an agreement with you that would INCLUDE the other challengers…and wait a minute – 12? Who ever said there were 12?

Justice Cahn’s order dated 17 March 2008 left key elements unanswered, including the dates for the event. Since then, we had a hearing with Justice Cahn but we still have no certainty as to the ruling. We are now less than 3 months from the dates indicated in the original GGYC challenge and we still do not know when the 10 months notice has started and which will be their boat.

Actually you do have a date as was stipulated in the official challenge by GGYC – YOU contended that date in court and YOU are the reason we are waiting for a ruling regarding the date. Establishing a date is not the responsibility of the court – they just interpret the deed and the law and apply it to the situation.

In that respect, the Challenge submitted by GGYC on 11 July 2007 does not supply the information prescribed in the Deed of Gift and is not only ambiguous but also contradictory in places. GGYC are now tactically withholding the custom-house registry and vital technical information regarding the boat that they will challenge with from the defender. This tactic is against the terms of the Deed of Gift and most certainly in contrast with the intentions of George Schuyler.

The Deed leaves a bit to be desired in this area – as well as another area, in my opinion, Alinghi is guilty of exploiting. The Deed does not explicitly specify WHEN the registry of the challenging vessel needs to be presented and it also doesn’t specify explicitly WHEN the location needs to be announced by the Defender…and we’re still waiting on that piece of information too….seeing as GGYC doesn’t know the location of the event, it’s kinda hard for them to finalize the technical details of their vessel (are we racing in the Southern Ocean or the shifty calm of something near the equator?). It’s pretty clear that the wording of the Deed assumed that a defense mounted by a club would be done so in their home waters. Given that it was written in the 1800s, it also does not take into account that we can fly boats to any location in the world in a matter of days nor does it consider that there would be a defender from a landlocked country.

There’s about 70 pages of the official appeal documentation on the GGYC website. While I’m certain there are loads of golden nuggets in there, I’m going to sit back and wait for the legal analysts to dissect this one. Tomorrow’s news should be interesting.