SAN DIEGO -- San Francisco's Golden Gate Yacht Club was back in a New York court Monday to begin its last-chance appeal to become the Challenger of Record and help set the rules for the next America's Cup.
The GGYC met the deadline for filing its brief with the New York State Court of Appeals in Albany. The California yacht club, which backs Larry Ellison's BMW Oracle Racing, wants the court to overturn a ruling by the New York Supreme Court's Appellate Division that Spain's Club Nautico Espanol de Vela, not GGYC, should be the Challenger of Record for the 33rd America's Cup.
This is the latest step in the 16-month spat between the GGYC and Societe Nautique de Geneve, which backs two-time defending America's Cup champion Alinghi of Switzerland.
GGYC filed its appellate brief two days after Ellison, the CEO of Oracle Corp., and Alinghi's boss, Swiss tycoon Ernesto Bertarelli, met in San Francisco in an attempt to get sailing's premier event out of legal gridlock and back on the water in its traditional format.
The Swiss group must file its brief by Nov. 13.
Both sides said they would like to continue talks, but no new discussions have been scheduled.
Last week, GGYC offered to drop its appeal if Alinghi agreed to a multichallenger regatta under the rules used in the 32nd America's Cup in 2007. Ellison reiterated that offer in his meeting with Bertarelli, BMW Oracle Racing spokesman Tom Ehman said.
In a statement, Alinghi lawyer Lucien Masmejan said the Swiss "have faith that the ongoing talks between all parties involved in the future of the America's Cup will be productive. However, if GGYC continues to press its case, we are confident that the lower court ruling will be affirmed."
The American and Swiss syndicates have been squabbling for more than a year over the rules Alinghi proposed for the 33rd America's Cup. That regatta had been scheduled for next year in Valencia, Spain, but was postponed last fall because of the legal fight.
Shortly after Alinghi defeated Team New Zealand in July 2007 to retain the oldest trophy in international sports, the Swiss announced they had chosen Nautico Espanol de Vela as the Challenger of Record. BMW Oracle Racing sued in a New York court, contending that the Spanish yacht club is a sham and that the rules proposed by Alinghi for the next regatta were tilted in favor of the defender.
The GGYC secured a ruling that it was the Challenger of Record. When the Americans and Swiss couldn't agree to terms for a conventional regatta, it appeared they were headed toward a rare one-on-one showdown, or Deed of Gift match, in giant multihulls.
But in a surprise reversal in late July, the New York Supreme Court's Appellate Division ruled 3-2 that 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.
The appellate division's decision was based on what it called "ambiguous" language in the Deed of Gift, the 19th-century document that governs the America's Cup.
GGYC quickly filed its last-chance appeal.
In its brief, the GGYC said the appellate division's reversal "contorts the plain language of the Deed and should be reversed.
"(T)he simple, straightforward conditions that the creator of the America's Cup Deed articulated in order to protect the competition from abuse should be respected and given effect. Failure to do so will destroy the America's Cup as we know it ."
America's Cup rules specify that legal disputes on the competition be settled in New York state court.
BMW Oracle Racing launched a 90-foot trimaran in Anacortes, Wash., in late August. It was shipped to San Diego last week and the crew will train for two months on the Pacific Ocean.
