www.alinghi.com
Alinghi Will Continue To Try Up Until The Court Room Steps To Find A Solution To The Situation
2007-10-21
(Valencia 21 October 2007) Over the past few months Alinghi, Defender of the 33rd America’s Cup, has been engaged in
dialogue with BMW Oracle Racing (BOR) at various levels in an attempt to find a solution to the law suit filed by the
Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) against the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG). BMW Oracle, through Russell Coutts, has
repeatedly shifted the discussion frame by adding new demands each time Alinghi moved to resolve the issues raised.
Nonetheless, the last communication to BOR from Alinghi before their press release was an invitation to a private
meeting in New York before the hearing to try and resolve the issue once and for all. This morning they confirmed their
attendance at this meeting.
The Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) and Alinghi have done much to try to convince BOR to drop their law suit; the SNG
instigated a Protocol review with the entered Challengers and, with the Challenger of Record, Club Náutico Español de
Vela, agreed a number of amendments to satisfy the GGYC and BMW Oracle's claims. At this point, Russell Coutts requested
via the Challengers group, reassurance that Alinghi would not have a head start in designing their new boat and advised
at least two challengers BOR would settle if Alinghi could prove it did not have a design advantage.
Alinghi responded by asking the entered Challengers to set the displacement, a fundamental parametre, for the new class.
The Challengers did so, and were satisfied that this would negate any design head start. For BOR it still was not enough
and they then wanted to analyse the displacement parametre in light of the full rules, not trusting the Challenger’s
designers, who confirmed the parametre was crucial enough to provide the expected guarantees.
To the dismay of Alinghi and the Challengers, BOR, through Russell, sent a letter on 18th October to Alinghi with a
further nine issues to be satisfied, including new points not previously raised. Several of these were completely
against the fundamentals of the programme agreed by all legitimately entered Challengers and the cost cutting strategy
presiding over the 33rd America’s Cup.
With regard to the rules disclosure, Grant Simmer, Alinghi design team coordinator, says: "Alinghi is working with the
Challengers to develop the new class rule. This was started on the 15 September and the Challengers have stated that
they are happy with this process. There are several key issues still being debated but we are working towards issuing
the rule on 31 October. If BOR chooses to enter they will be welcomed into this process.”
Brad Butterworth, Alinghi team skipper, adds his positive comments on the situation: “We are driven by the vision to
create a bigger and better event for everyone in 2009 with new boats but reduced costs and increased competition. Some
may say we were too ambitious but since then we have undertaken a raft of measures to try and find a solution to this
issue. We have consulted on the design of the new class, we have amended the Protocol and we have allowed the
challengers to pick the displacement of the boat, as we were led to believe this was the last remaining issue for BMW
Oracle. Despite not yet having issued the new class rule, they know a lot about the concept, plus they had the chance to
agree the displacement. I firmly believe that there is still time left to agree a solution with BMW Oracle and for them
to drop their law suit and join the other Challengers to help us make this an even greater event than the last. The last
communication that we sent to them before their press release of last night was an invitation to a private meeting in
New York on Monday morning before the hearing to have one last go at finding an agreement, something we still hope to do
for the better of the event, the challengers and us.”
ends