Battle of the billionaires goes to LE 1 - EB zip

The America's Cup dispute seems to have been solved with Judge Cahn's ruling. (See below) Or has it? Will Alinghi negotiate on this basis, sail in cats or appeal? ISAF is taking allot of flak over Olympic events selection. The worlds media has been following very closely as it has become very fashionable to air much of the sailing worlds business and closest kept secrets on the web these days. Does anyone really think that the "gurus", journalists, bloggers and forum experts around the world know better than elected office bearers (National & International) and race officials involved in the sport of sailing? If you would like to throw your two bobs worth into the ring, this Capt Marty - AsianYachting blogsite is ready for our readers to add their points of view on selected articles published in the News and Views. As we are very familiar with sailing club gossip and rumor mongering, we have decided to experiment with the Blog and are quite prepared to give our own prospective on any sailing subjects you can throw at us.

The New York Supreme Court Judge Herman Cahn has ruled in favour of Golden Gate Yacht Club in its case against the Société Nautique de Gèneve. This result means that the Spanish Yacht Club (CNEV) will no longer be the Challenger of Record for the 33rd America's Cup. The Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), representing Larry Ellison's BMW Oracle Racing team becomes the Challenger of Record, welcomed the ruling by the New York State Supreme Court that its challenge for the 33rd America’s Cup was valid. 'We are very pleased by the decision as it enables everyone to focus on getting the Cup back on track quickly,' said Russell Coutts, CEO of the club’s BMW Oracle Racing team. He said GGYC wanted to see a conventional America’s Cup regatta in Valencia and is planning to speak with Alinghi as soon as possible to organize a meeting seeking a mutual consent challenge. Ernesto Bertarelli, President of Alinghi, says: 'We are disappointed that a technicality made the CNEV invalid and we are now looking forward to discussions with the Golden Gate Yacht Club to keep the America’s Cup functioning.'

GGYC’s first preferences would be to:
1. Seek to agree rules with all competitors along the lines of the October 17 'nine points' compromise proposal and race a conventional America’s Cup competition in Valencia in 2009.
2. If a Deed of Gift challenge went ahead, the club would seek to race under the AC90 monohull rule already published. If Alinghi did not agree to that, in multi-hulls.
3. In all scenarios, GGYC would seek by mutual consent to have a Challenger Selection Series with as many challengers as possible.
'We will immediately endeavour to meet with the other challengers to mutually agree a fair set of rules negotiated with all the other teams,' Coutts said. 'We will be very happy if we can put the last few months behind us and get on sailing.'