After months of mud-slinging in court, defending champion Alinghi and challenger BMW Oracle prepared for a duel with giant cats, trained and built their boats. All in vain, the farce starts all over again.
The Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court has overturned the judgement of Herman Cahn by 3:2 votes. After a gruelling and time-consuming battle, the judge had rejected the protocol developed by Alinghi for the 33rd America's Cup and awarded the plaintiff BMW Oracle the right to sail in a duel against the defending champion for the oldest sporting trophy in the world. This will probably come to nothing.
Now the appeals court has reinstalled the original Challenger of Records, the Spanish Club Nautico Espanol de Vela (CNEV), as the lead challenger. However, it no longer exists. Like many other campaigns - including Team Gemany - it was dissolved after Cahn's first judgement. Nevertheless, it was granted a ten-month period to prepare for the regatta at yesterday's hearing.
Alinghi boss Ernesto Bertarelli said in an initial statement that he was "delighted with this result". The Swiss could now realise their "vision of an event with several challengers". His lawyer Lucien Masmejan was "very satisfied" and described the previous litigation aria brought by BMW Oracle as a "waste of time". Both expressed their hope that the Americans would refrain from appealing against the judgement again and that they would finally fight each other on the water.
However, the chances of this happening are slim. According to spokesman Tom Ehman ("We are surprised and disappointed"), BMW Oracle will first "seek legal advice" and then "discuss the next step". After the previous history, insiders do not expect Oracle boss Larry Ellison, who is worth billions and is known for his pronounced ego, to accept this defeat.
Up until this sensational decision - the only thing left to decide seemed to be the date and venue - both duelists had prepared themselves with exorbitant effort and hired world-class multihull experts as coaches. Cup icon Russell Coutts, the new skipper of the Americans, recently appeared before the press in Munich and raved about the new 90-foot multihulls for the Cup. Such a high-tech monster, optimised for strong or light winds, is being built for Alinghi in Switzerland in the utmost secrecy on an almost military-like site - the two-time Cup winner is not due to announce the sailing area until September. Meanwhile, BMW Oracle has developed strategies and boats for both options with correspondingly greater effort.
Initial reactions from the scene were dismayed after the duel had initially been grudgingly accepted, the main thing being that there was finally peace in the discourse. Some therefore initially suspect a belated "April Fool's joke", America's Cup veteran Robbie Doyle speaks of a "death blow" to the Cup's reputation, and the former president of the World Sailing Federation, Paul Henderson, said: "The egos involved have brought total disgrace to sailing's most important event."
