New Zealand sailor Russell Coutts says the black trimaran he has been sailing for America's Cup wannabe Larry Ellison is the fastest inshore sailboat in the world.
BMW Oracle Racing's 30m trimaran was docked in San Diego harbour last week, its towering mast giving the high-rise hotels some competition.
"I'm staying on the 13th floor, and I'm not at the mast yet," Coutts told an International Herald Tribune reporter.
Coutts won the America's Cup with Team New Zealand in 1995 and 2000 before leading the Swiss Alinghi team to victory over Team New Zealand at Auckland in 2003.
He now heads the BMW Oracle team, and skippers its "Dogzilla' , the latest high-tech trimaran, which he said is "the fastest".
While most big trimarans were built for offshore racing, this one was designed for inshore racing and has been clocked at speeds twice that of the wind.
"It's much lighter, more powerful with a much bigger mast, sails and so forth and much more extreme," Coutts said.
"This boat is a no compromise lightweight flyer basically, so there's a huge difference."
But with a long-running lawsuit continuing, it is a toss-up whether BMW Oracle's three-hulled boat will ever be used in the America's Cup.
If BMW Oracle wins an appeal in the New York courts sometime next year, the team may race its trimaran against one being designed by Alinghi, the America's Cup holders, in a one-on-one series under the rules outlined in the Cup's governing document, the Deed of Gift.
That would be a Deed of Gift match, or DOG match - giving the trimaran its Dogzilla nickname.
Ellison initiated his lawsuit last year in the belief that Alinghi, after successfully defending the cup in 2007, had made an unseemly power grab when it picked a newly constituted Spanish yacht club as its official challenger and then published race rules widely viewed as one-sided.
BMW Oracle Racing is offering one last time to drop its court case against Alinghi if it sees proof that the rules for the next regatta will be more equitable.
The US syndicate has asked to see by Monday (Tuesday NZ time) copies of the protocol, event regulations and competition regulations that are being drafted.
If BMW Oracle Racing agrees with amendments to the rules, it will drop its case and meet the December 15 deadline to enter the next regatta, Coutts said.
"If it's not given the requested documents, or if it feels there has been insufficient progress in resolving the issue, it will continue with its court case."
The Golden Gate Yacht Club, which backs BMW Oracle Racing, had secured a ruling in New York State Supreme Court this year that it was the Challenger of Record.
But in a surprise reversal in late July, the New York Supreme Court's Appellate Division ruled 3-2 that a Spanish yacht club originally chosen by Alinghi, not GGYC, should be the Challenger of Record.
Golden Gate has filed a last-chance appeal with the New York State Court of Appeals in Albany and oral arguments are scheduled for February 10.
If BMW Oracle Racing wins the court case and Alinghi can't agree to terms on a traditional multichallenger regatta in monohulls, the two syndicates will meet in a rare one-on-one showdown in giant multihulls.
Alinghi is still building its multihull, but meanwhile, Coutts is conducting sea trials off San Diego.
If the lawsuit is withdrawn, Alinghi has already announced that the next Cup -- scaled down for the new economic realities -- will be staged in traditional monohull yachts in Valencia, Spain, in 2010.
If Oracle gives in to mounting peer pressure and ends the legal action, or loses in court, the trimaran 30m wide and 30m long, with a 48m mast, may not be reduced to a white elephant, the International Herald Tribune reported.
"I think we'll try to set a few speed records with the boat if it doesn't get used," Ellison told the paper.
