Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Breitling MedCup - Round 2 Caixa Galicia Win!

CxG CORPORACIÓN CAIXAGALICIA with Roberto Bermudez de Castro steering and John Kostecki calling tactics on the new Botin and Carkeek design has won its first TP52 regatta finishing on 24 points well clear of second placed Artemis on 34 points. Artemis's scorecard featured 3 firsts and 2 seconds, although a 13th position in the opening race probably hurt their final result. Even so Russell Coutts and the crew should be proud. In third place on 59 points was Siemens with Alinghi strategist Murray Jones calling the shots.

Looking at the wide spread in finish points there is still some improvement to be made by all boats. A very good one design fleet would have a spread of about 2 - 4 points between boats.

The next regatta in the Breitling MedCup will be the Copa del Rey starting on July 30.





Photos: Thierry Martinez (http://www.thmartinez.com/)

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Foiling Moth Tacking Practice

Here's a great video for all those budding foiling moth sailor's out there. Rohan Veal tries to stay foiling through some tacks on Lake Garda, Italy.... enjoy!

GGYC to seek legal redress in the New York Courts

By seeking redress in the courts, the GGYC have ruled out just about all hope of having the 33rd America's Cup in 2 years time. What a shame.

[source: Golden Gate Yacht Club]

LACK OF RESPONSE FROM SWISS AMERICA’S CUP DEFENDER FORCES GGYC TO SEEK LEGAL REDRESS IN THE NEW YORK COURTS

While ignoring the valid GGYC challenge, SNG accepts a second challenger under the invalid AC 33 Protocol

New York, NY, 20 July 2007 -- Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) filed a lawsuit today against the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, which has jurisdiction over the America’s Cup Deed of Gift.

The San Francisco club is asking the Court to:

* void the purported challenge of the Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV) because CNEV does not qualify under the Deed of Gift as a challenger;

* declare the “Protocol Governing the 33rd America’s Cup” agreed between SNG and CNEV null and void because (i) CNEV was an invalid challenger, and (ii) SNG is engaging in self-dealing by accepting CNEV’s purported challenge and entering into a protocol which eliminates Challenger rights and omits basic information regarding match rules and conditions.

* declare that GGYC’s challenge filed on 11 July 2007 for the 33rd America’s Cup is valid; and

* require SNG to accept GGYC’s challenge, and implement the terms of the Deed of Gift by participating with GGYC in the establishment of a proper protocol though a consensual process; or, failing that, to proceed with a match with GGYC under the rules expressly set forth in the Deed of Gift.

Key excerpts from the lawsuit filed today:

The action arises out of defendant SNG’s violation of the clear, express terms of the Deed of Gift, a trust instrument executed under the laws of New York, on October 24, 1887. SNG is the present holder and successor trustee of the trophy known world-wide as the America’s Cup. The Deed of Gift (“Deed”) provides that the America’s Cup is a “perpetual Challenge Cup for friendly competition between foreign countries.” By failing to enforce the terms of the Deed, SNG has turned the Deed of Gift on its head and transformed it into a “Defender’s Cup,” dominated by SNG, in breach of SNG’s fiduciary duties.

SNG has accepted a challenge that is invalid under the Deed of Gift from Club Náutico Español de Vela (“CNEV”), a brand new yacht club… specifically created to collaborate with SNG.

SNG used CNEV… to engineer a match Protocol in which virtually all Challenger rights are eliminated and total control of the event and its rules are granted to SNG, altering the very nature of the competition and giving unprecedented and unfair advantages to SNG.

By refusing to disclose…the basic elements of regatta venue, date and boat design rules, there is no opportunity for a fair and equitable competition.

Moreover, while SNG’s Team Alinghi can begin to plan its campaign and design its yachts, all other competitors are stalled.

The Deed of Gift, a document dating from 1857, defines the rules for the America’s Cup, the oldest trophy in international sport.

The Deed states that the Defender and first-in Challenger (known as the “Challenger of Record”) “may, by mutual consent, make any arrangement satisfactory to both as to the dates, courses, number of trials, rules and sailing regulations, and any and all other conditions of the match.” Since the 1992 Cup, such mutual consent has been called the “Protocol.”

If the defending and challenging clubs cannot reach mutual agreement, then the Deed prescribes particular match rules. In all but one of the previous 32 editions of the Cup – in 1988 – the Defender and Challenger have adopted a Protocol, or “Conditions” as the document was known prior to 1988.

“Yesterday SNG left us no choice other than to go to court when ACM [America’s Cup Management – SNG’s company formed to manage Cup events] announced that SNG had accepted on Wednesday a second challenger under the invalid Protocol. This is a clear signal that SNG intends to ignore our challenge under the Deed and proceed with its efforts to dictate unilaterally the terms of the competition,” said GGYC Commodore Marcus Young.

“The recently completed 32nd America’s Cup, in which Alinghi raced Team New Zealand, delivered what many said was the closest and most exciting in the history of the Cup. The fact that the racing was so close brought the Cup to more people world-wide than ever before. It’s a real shame that SNG is trying to change the rules to create an unfair advantage.

“We still hope SNG will accept GGYC as Challenger of Record even before the court has to rule on our lawsuit. If not, we hope the courts will swiftly resolve this matter so we can get back on the water for a fair and exciting 33rd America’s Cup.”

For more information, including a copy of the lawsuit (when available), please visit www.ggyc.com.

Breitling Medcup Round 2 - Day 2

Vicente Tirado's Caixa Galicia with John Kostecki calling tactics moved 14 points clear on the second day of the Regata Breitling-Illes Balears. In second place is Artemis with Russell Coutts calling tactics, scoring a second and first in the two races of the day. Artemis has moved up from fourth place overall, 5 point clear of Peter de Ridder's Valle Romano Mean Machine in third spot.

Breitling Medcup TP52 Circuit

Regata Breitling Results




Photos: Thierry Martinez (http://www.thmartinez.com/)

Friday, July 20, 2007

America´s Cup Propaganda!

Do not believe what you read! In an effort to lure the challengers into their corner of the ring, the GGYC has sent out this press release stating that it "will continue building on the sportsmanship and close competition of the latest America’s Cup". I very much doubt it. It the 32nd America´s Cup BMW Oracle (Challenger of Record 32nd America´s Cup) successfully fooled the challengers into a compressed round robin series, eliminating the weak teams early and then having a nicely spaced out semi-final and finals program enabling time to do some more testing before facing the defender. Too bad it back fired on them.

Here´s the press release form the GGYC.

Golden Gate Yacht Club Shares Vision for Close Competition in America’s Cup

Golden Gate Yacht Club said today that the San Francisco club’s challenge will continue building on the sportsmanship and close competition of the latest America’s Cup.

Last week, Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) lodged a challenge for the 33rd America’s Cup with Defender Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), and in taking this step, the GGYC also wants to support the competitive position of all challengers.

“Close racing and intense rivalry are at the heart of a great event,” GGYC Commodore Marcus Young said. “We want the next regatta to be as exciting as the last one - and to do that it must offer neutral rules and an equal chance for all syndicates.”

He said the recent Protocol proposed by SNG raised serious concerns in departing from fair competition.

“It is proposed to abandon neutral regatta officials. The Challenger Commission would lose its voting powers. And for the first time in history, the Defender not only wants to introduce its own new rule for the class of boat to be raced, but also to keep this new rule secret. It will be disclosed to challengers at a much later stage, putting all challengers at a huge disadvantage.”

“These proposed changes are moves against the fantastic and close competition that we have witnessed in the last regatta,” he said.

Golden Gate’s vision for the 33rd America’s Cup is for a circuit of races in the current ACC yachts, shared neutral event management and a democratic challenger commission.

GGYC supports the right of challengers to determine their own selection series format. It also wants to create a continuous circuit of world-class events throughout the world to provide exciting competition in the interim Cup years for the competitors, media, sponsors and fans.
The San Francisco club supports the continued use of Valencia as the venue for the next regatta. “The city has made an enormous investment developing a magnificent America’s Cup port and infrastructure that far exceeds any previous Cup host city and this should be retained,” the GGYC Commodore said.
“The proposed changes would not only reduce the asset value of current boats to almost zero but also jeopardize the participation of syndicates and damage the event,” he said.
GGYC believes all participants – challengers and the Defender – should start immediately to mutually develop a new design rule, allowing all future competitors a fair and equal opportunity and sufficient time to develop, design and build their new yachts.

Each competitor should be permitted to build the same number of yachts."Achieving these goals would benefit all challengers in delivering fair competition and build on the great successes of the 32nd America’s Cup in Valencia,” Young said.GGYC awaits confirmation of acceptance from SNG to become the Challenger of Record for the 33rd AC.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

33rd America's Cup Venue Negotiations

It is rumored that Ernesto Bertarelli (Alinghi) has recently had a meeting with the prime minister of Italy, Romano Prodi, to possibly discuss the subject of hosting the 33rd America's Cup at an Italian venue. It is well known that the Louis Vuitton Act in Trapani was a huge success and this port would no doubt be on the list of preferred sites along with others, such as, Marseille (France), Lisbon (Portugal) and maybe even a venue in Greece!

I think that ACM would be silly to effectively stop the momentum gained during the 32nd America's Cup by choosing to go to a different location coupled with the new class that apparently everyone wants so bad. A new venue would require at least a four year lead time and make it very difficult for the smaller teams to find sponsorship. In fact, most of the large European business' have board meetings scheduled for the third quarter of this year, and would make sponsorship decisions at this meeting. Surely ACM are aware of this and will make the obvious (to everyone else in the world) announcement soon that the 33rd America's Cup will be held in Valencia. Let's hope in 2009!

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Breitling MEDCUP Round 2

The Breitling Regatta being second event in the TP52 circuit will start on Wednesday July 18 in Puerto Portals only 7 kilometres from Palma. 24 boats are entered for the regatta which will no doubt feature a plethora of America´s Cup sailors now free of their duties.

Regatta Breitling site

Breitling Medcup TP52 Circuit

Regatta Breitling Results

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Dexia Farr 40 Skagen 2007

It's nice to see some Aussies getting out and spreading their wings in the European circuit and achieving some good results. Hooligan (Marcus Blackmore) and Kokomo (Lang Walker) have finished second and third in the Dexia Farr 40 regatta held in Denmark. Opus One (Wolfgang Stoltz) won the regatta with multiple world champion Barking Mad (Jim Richardson) finishing fourth. The fleet experienced breezy conditions throughout the regatta and the new masthead spinnakers proved a handful for the owner drivers. Here's the regatta site & results.

The Farr 40 fleet now head to the Marstrand Regatta in Sweden, July 23-28 before heading back to Denmark for the pre-worlds in Copenhagen which start on August 24.

Hooligan wipe out under masthead spinnaker - Day 2

Friday, July 13, 2007

The Games for the 33rd America´s Cup begin!!!

It seems Larry did not appreciate the Spanish signing a blank sheet of paper for the 33rd America´s Cup protocol, effectively handing over all power to Alinghi. Let the games begin... Let´s hope we do not go back in time to 1988 when we saw court case after court case and then an absurd match between a catamaran and monohull!!

[Source: Golden Gate Yacht Club] The Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) of San Francisco today presented a formal challenge for the 33rd America's Cup to the Société Nautique Genève (SNG), defending yacht club of Cup winner Team Alinghi. The challenge was delivered in person on July 11th by representatives of GGYC to an officer of the Swiss club in Geneva. The GGYC challenge follows the SNG's acceptance of what appears to be an invalid challenge that unfairly advantages the defender, Team Alinghi.

After Alinghi won the 32nd America’s Cup on July 3rd, SNG accepted a challenge from the Spanish Club Nautico Espanol de Vela (CNEV). It appears that CNEV is a brand new yacht club specifically created for this challenge and as such fails to meet the requirements for a challenging yacht club as defined by the Deed of Gift. The Deed of Gift, a document written in 1857, defines the rules for the America's Cup to this day. The Deed of Gift requires that the Challenging yacht club conduct an annual regatta on an arm of the sea. CNEV has never conducted a regatta of any kind and thus cannot be a legitimate Cup challenger.

Furthermore, the race Protocol for the 33rd America’s Cup agreed to by the challenging yacht club CNEV and the defending SNG are invalid because they fail to specify the rules for the next competition by omitting a specific regatta date, location and class of boat. The Protocol is also invalid because virtually all Challenger rights are eliminated and total control of the event and its rules are granted to the Defender, Team Alinghi. The Alinghi Protocol for the 33rd Americas Cup alters the very nature of the competition giving unprecedented and unfair advantages to the Defender.

Without the basic elements of regatta venue, date and boat design rules as required by the Deed of Gift, the Alinghi Protocol provides no opportunity for a fair and equitable competition. Only the Defender can begin to plan their campaign and design their yachts while all the other competitors must sit and wait for further information. We have spoken with most of our fellow AC 32 Challengers and we believe that they share our view. We seek to continue to expand and build upon the successes of the 32nd America's Cup which was exciting and rewarding for competitors, sponsors, media and fans by returning to an environment where mutual consent in forming the rules provided a fair and close competition for all.

We will endeavor to work with SNG to mutually agree to appropriate terms for the 33rd America's Cup to keep the event exciting and fair for all. Under SNG's stewardship, the 32nd America's Cup delivered some of the most hotly-contested racing in recent Cup history and brought Cup sailing to more people worldwide than ever before. We hope we can build on this for the future and continue the momentum we started here together in Valencia. The Deed of Gift requires the Defender to accept a valid challenge, and together the Defender and Challenger can mutually agree on the rules for the competition. Failing such agreement, then the original rules in the Deed will dictate the terms, defaulting to a challenge to take place in ten months with a boat defined by the challenger.