Americas Cup
The Royal Thames and the America’s Cup
The Royal Thames Yacht Club has had a long and close relationship with challengers for the America’s Cup. As many will be aware, the Cup is held and challenged for by yacht clubs, rather than the teams involved. The club that first won and then successfully defended the Cup for many years was the New York Yacht Club, the very first challenger being James Ashbury, who challenged under the burgee of the Royal Thames.
Since then the Club has been involved with a number of teams over the years. Our present partnership is with TEAMORIGIN, led by Club member Sir Keith Mills. With TEAMORIGIN, the Royal Thames submitted a formal challenge to Societé Nautique de Genève and Alinghi in 2007, but this fell away when the various court cases noted below led to the competition for the Cup being suspended.
We continue to be very confident about the abilities of the talented team assembled by Sir Keith Mills. On the sailing side this includes Mike Sanderson, Ben Ainslie, Iain Percy and many others with enormous experience at this level. There are also top yacht designers, sail makers, mast makers and others, in addition to the sailing crew.
Although they have not been racing AC boats in recent months, key members of the team have been kept sailing together on other projects, including racing the TEAMORIGIN TP52 around the European circuit, the Extreme 40 series (discussed below), and activities in larger yachts, similar to the likely AC90 class. TEAMORIGIN sailors are currently involved with the planned Virgin Money record breaking run in ‘Speedboat’, which aims to become the fastest yacht across the Atlantic.
There is now hope that the next America’s Cup competition will move ahead. However, to put everything into perspective it is useful to review developments over the last eighteen months. At the end of this section we give our appreciation of the present position, and also the latest news we have available from TEAMORIGIN.
Recent America’s Cup History
In 2007, after they had successfully defended the 32nd America’s Cup, the Alinghi team and their yacht club, the Societé Nautique de Genève (SNG) announced that the challenger of record for the 33rd America’s Cup in 2009 would be the newly-formed Spanish yacht club, Club Nautico Espanol de Vela (CNEV). CNEV agreed that Alinghi could set the protocol for the challengers for the 33rd Cup, including the design concept of a new 90ft monohull boat. In return, Alinghi agreed to keep the event in Valencia, while also retaining a high level of control over the event.
BMW Oracle Racing (Oracle) and the Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) then challenged SNG and Alinghi in the New York Courts, saying that CNEV did not meet the requirements to be a challenger as defined by the original deed of gift. They also criticised the level of control that Alinghi had in general, and over CNEV, which would be acting as Challenger of Record on behalf of the other participating clubs and teams.
At the end of November 2007 Judge Cahn in New York ruled that CNEV was not a valid challenger and ordered Alinghi to negotiate with the GGYC who would become the new Challengers of Record. If no mutual agreement could be reached, then in January 2008 the judge would tell both parties what action they should take. It was anticipated that the outcome would be a “default match” sailed between the two parties under the old deed of gift (otherwise called a DOG match).
The judge did not rule on the timing, which led to more uncertainty and various interpretations, ranging from 10 months from the original Oracle challenge (July 2008), to 10 months from his court order (October 2008), or to early summer 2009. It was assumed by then that the racing would indeed be in catamarans 90 feet in length.
Following this ruling SNG and Alinghi appealed to the New York Supreme Court, although they claimed they would seek to work closely with GGYC in order to salvage the 33rd America’s Cup as a multi-challenger event. However, this appears not to have happened. For the appeal SNG appointed new lawyers who claimed that:
1. GGYC had not established that it has made a valid challenge
2. Even if GGYC were the Challenger of Record, the October 2008 date would not work in Valencia, the location that has been mutually agreed.
3. The NYSC should not set a date without a full appreciation of the “logistical nightmares” contained within the GGYC’s proposal.
In February 2008 Judge Cahn in New York concluded that Alinghi should be given enough time to respond to the challenge in multihulls, which implied that the 33rd America’s Cup would take place in Valencia in 2009. Subsequently Oracle unveiled a spectacular 90ft trimaran that has been undergoing sea trials off San Diego; it is rumoured that Alinghi has a similar craft in build in Europe.
By now all the teams had dramatically reduced their activities in Valencia as they no longer expected to challenge for the 33rd Cup.
In view of the multihull interest a number of the AC teams started competing in light, fast Extreme 40 catamarans. Many have taken part in the iShares Cup series that has run in key European locations, and was completed in September 2008 in Amsterdam. The series was just won by Alinghi in the last races in light airs, although TEAMORIGIN had been ahead on points for most of the summer.
Latest Situation
To the surprise of many parties, Alinghi’s appeal was upheld by the New York Supreme Court in July 2008. CNEV was accepted as a potential Challenger of Record after all. However, there was one further appeal stage open to Oracle which was immediately taken, with the results expected in January or February 2009, leading to even more delays and uncertainty. Subsequently a number of the other potential challengers, including TEAMORIGIN, started to encourage the two warring factions to get together and plan to meet on the water, rather than in the courts.
During September 2008 it was understood that there was the possibility of a multi-challenger event being reinstated for the 33rd Cup after all, much along the lines that were finally agreed before the court cases took over. The heads of the two teams, Ernesto Bertarelli (Alinghi) and Larry Ellison (Oracle) arranged to meet in California at the end of the month. So it is possible that SNG and GGYC will agree to reinstate the original plans in Valencia, sailing in the AC5 boats and then in a development of the new America’s Cup 90ft class.
The Royal Thames Yacht Club and TEAMORIGIN will be delighted if the contest develops along these lines.
In the meantime the Emirates Team New Zealand has developed an interesting match racing series using their two ‘old’ AC boats, which will be equalised as far as possible. It seems as if eight teams will compete in a ‘Louis Vuitton Pacific Series’ to be held on this basis from February 2009, involving many of the potential America’s Cup crews. Similar events could develop elsewhere.
As ever, the America’s Cup is in a state of flux. All we can suggest is that members interested in the event “watch this space” and we will update you as the situation develops. In the meantime out partners in TEAMORIGIN will issue news about their achievements and plans, which you will be able to read here. [Note that the TEAMORIGIN report on these pages does not yet cover the last result in Extreme 40’s. See also the September 2008 RTYC Newsletter for reports by Royal Thames members sailing on the TEAMORIGIN boat at Cowes]
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