Alinghi offers Australia as America’s Cup venue

SAN DIEGO (AP)—The most contentious America’s Cup in the 158-year history of the event could be headed to Australia, if the teams can agree to end their long, bitter court fight.

Defending champion Alinghi of Switzerland told a New York judge Thursday that it would race American challenger BMW Oracle Racing off Australia in February as a compromise. Alinghi still prefers to race in the Persian Gulf.

The yachting showcase has been beset by a two-year legal tussle between bickering billionaires Larry Ellison and Ernesto Bertarelli.

The Swiss haven’t named a specific port, but said several locations on Australia’s east coast would be suitable for the best-of-three showdown in giant multihulls, the fastest, most extreme boats built for the America’s Cup.

“This is a venue that should be acceptable to both teams if, as expressed publicly, the true intention of BMW Oracle is to race for the America’s Cup on the water,” Alinghi said in a statement.

Like everything else in this fight, though, getting an agreement could be tough.

Alinghi’s yacht club, Societe Nautique de Geneve, made the offer in a letter to New York State Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich. If the justice agrees, and the Americans agree to drop legal proceedings, the Swiss said they would select a Southern Hemisphere location within 10 business days.

“This is an elegant solution to eliminate all litigation,” Barry Ostrager, a New York lawyer who represents SNG, told The Associated Press.

Philip Bowman, an attorney for San Francisco’s Golden Gate Yacht Club, which backs the American challenger, sent a letter to Ostrager asking him to identify which venue on Australia’s 2,500-mile east coast the Swiss want. Racing is scheduled to start Feb. 8.

“This information is necessary to ascertain whether it would be possible to prepare for a race at the chosen location on short notice,” Bowman wrote.

Kornreich is scheduled to hear the two sides’ latest arguments on rules and the venue on Friday.

Alinghi originally chose Ras Al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, as the venue. Last week, Kornreich ruled that RAK was ineligible because of the stipulation in the 19th-century Deed of Gift that the America’s Cup can’t be sailed in the Northern Hemisphere between Nov. 1 and May. 1.

BMW Oracle Racing, owned by Ellison, the CEO of Oracle Corp., also objected to Ras Al-Khaimah on security grounds because it is close to Iran.

The Swiss on Wednesday were granted an expedited appeal of Kornreich’s ruling eliminating RAK.

The Cup had seemed headed for Valencia, Spain. Although it is in the Northern Hemisphere, neither side objected earlier in the court fight to holding the series in the Spanish port, although they disagreed on the dates. Valencia hosted the 2007 America’s Cup.

“We have asked her for clarity, if she is forcing Valencia as the venue or keeping the defender’s right to choose,” Alinghi spokesman Paco Latorre told The AP.

SNG based its selection of RAK on now-retired Justice Herman Cahn’s order that the Swiss could hold the racing in Valencia or any other location, as long as they gave the Americans six months notice.

“GGYC shouldn’t be able to have it both ways,” Ostrager said. “If the ‘any other location’ language in the order is trumped by the Deed of Gift Northern Hemisphere requirement, notwithstanding that Valencia is in the Northern Hemisphere, then the six months notice requirement in the order is trumped by the Deed of Gift requirement that the defender has the right to select the venue.”

With time running out, logistics become a concern. If this were a normal America’s Cup, syndicates would fly their sloops to the venue in a giant Russian cargo plane. But nothing has been normal about this America’s Cup.

The boats are so big that they’ll have to be transported by ship, regardless of the venue. BMW Oracle Racing’s 90-by-90-foot trimaran has been in San Diego since last fall. Alinghi’s equally immense catamaran, Alinghi 5, has been in RAK for several weeks, along with the sailing team and some 100 support personnel.

Australia once was an America’s Cup power but hasn’t competed since the 1999-2000 regatta in Auckland, New Zealand. The Aussie skipper then, James Spithill, is now BMW Oracle Racing’s helmsman.

In 1983, the wing-keeled Australia II ended the New York Yacht Club’s 132-year winning streak, the longest in sports, by beating Dennis Conner’s Liberty in seven races off Newport, R.I.

Four years later, Conner won back the Cup with a four-race sweep of Kookaburra III off Fremantle on Australia’s west coast.

AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar in Basel, Switzerland, contributed to this report.