On 2/17/10 1:52 AM, st.helier wrote:

> Holder (Alinghi of Switzerland) - crewed by mainly NZers, lured by Swiss
> billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli's million Euro pay cheques (checks to you
> :-))) - attempted to change the 160year old rules of the contest.
>
> Larry Ellison (software magnate squillionaire) took the case to the NY
> Supreme Court (final arbiter as set down in the original Deed of Gift)

Yes, I heard about that kerfuffle.

>
> After spending something like $50M each on legal bitching, a regatta was
> ordered (by the aforementioned NY Supreme Court) - comprising two only
> competitors, sailing on racing multihulls - each costing in the order of
> another $50M - to the exclusion of all other challengers.

Aha! Didn't catch that aspect of the story.

>
> So, Larry Ellison's BMW Oracle (with NZer Russell Coutts as CEO) won the
> race(s) 2 - 0 - as sailed in Valencia, Spain - and the America's Cup is
> on it's way to San Francisco.
>
> Hopefully, Mr Ellison will now let a true, multi-challenger regatta to
> commence - probably in 3 - 4 years.
>
> Sorry about the long convoluted explanation - but this has been a case
> of two ultra-rich kids, each wanting to "own" sports oldest trophy -
> where *sport* never entered the equation.
>

Which probably goes a long way toward explaining why it didn't get more
play in the press, though. Rich kids squabbling isn't newsworthy unless
some salacious details come forth.

All the best to you,
Mark Lipton

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