America’s Cup challenger pleased with ruling

SAN DIEGO (AP)—America’s Cup challenger BMW Oracle Racing claimed a court victory on Thursday when a New York judge adopted the unanimous recommendations of three experts regarding technical issues for February’s showdown against two-time defending champion Alinghi of Switzerland.

In one of the five issues, the panel agreed that it will be safe to sail the best-of-three series in Valencia, Spain, in February. The Swiss had raised concerns that the weather in the Mediterranean port would be unpredictable.

Although the Swiss say they are preparing to hold the races in Valencia, they’ve appealed a court order that eliminated their first choice, Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. The Swiss say in their appeal papers that they will sail the races in RAK if they win their appeal, which is expected to be heard before the end of the month.

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The showdown in giant multihulls for the oldest trophy in international sports is scheduled to begin Feb. 8.

BMW Oracle Racing and Alinghi have been fighting in court for more than two years over rules, the venue and the timing of the races.

Tom Ehman, a spokesman for San Francisco’s Golden Gate Yacht Club, said the most significant of the five issues considered by the panel was the decision that the 90-foot multihulls must be measured with all ballast aboard, including moveable water ballast. Ehman said that blocks Alinghi’s attempt to circumvent the limit of a 90-foot load waterline imposed by the 19th century Deed of Gift.

Alinghi had argued that its giant catamaran, Alinghi 5, could be measured in its lightest state, without water ballast. Adding the water ballast after measurement would sink the boat deeper in the water, increasing its waterline length and making it faster.

“It’s no problem for us and good to have them deciding sailing issues,” Alinghi skipper Brad Butterworth said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Ehman said BMW Oracle Racing’s trimaran, which has been undergoing sea trials off San Diego since last fall, was not designed to use water ballast.

The Americans unveiled a 190-foot wing sail last week which they hope will give them an edge over the Swiss.

Justice Shirley Kornreich of the New York State Supreme Court adopted the unanimous recommendations made by the expert panel, which took testimony from both Golden Gate Yacht Club and the Alinghi’s backing yacht club, Societe Nautique de Geneve in New York on Nov. 7.

“This is victory for fair rules and common sense,” Ehman said in a statement. “Once again SNG’s attempts to bias the rules in their favor have been rejected.”

Kornreich required the International Sailing Federation to appoint an international jury by Dec. 4.

Ehman said the court called for its own expert panel of former America’s Cup jurors because of SNG’s refusal to put an International Jury in place to determine some of the sporting and technical issues.

“All we have ever asked is that the America’s Cup be raced under the normal rules and procedures that nearly every sailor in the world competes under. Yet again SNG has had to be reminded that the America’s Cup is not the Alinghi Cup,” Ehman said.

SNG vice commodore Fred Meyer said in a statement that Kornreich “has brought a degree more certainty to the 33rd America’s Cup today. It is good to at last have her decision on some of the pending issues.”