Yachting: Court's decision best for everyone, Team NZ says

Team New Zealand has described a New York judge's decision against America's Cup yachting defenders Alinghi yesterday as the best outcome for all challengers.

Team NZ managing director Grant Dalton said the verdict would help to get the cup back on track for a multi-syndicate regatta, probably in 2010 or 2011.

‘‘It's a great result,'' he said.

‘‘It's the start of the clearing of the fog in the landscape.''

In a battle between two billionaires, American syndicate Oracle, headed by Larry Ellison, took Ernesto Bertarelli's Alinghi to court last year.

Oracle argued that the Swiss defenders had chosen an illegitimate yacht club, the newly-formed Spanish outfit CNEV, as its main challenger and the two had set rules that were weighted unfairly in the defenders' favour.

The legal stand-off resulted in the postponement of the next multichallenger regatta, which had been scheduled for next year in Valencia.

In November, New York Supreme Court judge Herman Cahn ruled in Oracle's favour. Yesterday, he rejected Alinghi's application to reargue the case.

That decision means Alinghi and Oracle will now race head-to-head in a best-of-three match for the sport's most coveted trophy.

The contest, expected to be in giant catamarans, will pit two New Zealand skippers - Brad Butterworth (Alinghi) and Russell Coutts (Oracle), both past winners - against each other.

Dalton said Team NZ backed Oracle's court action because of Alinghi's unwillingness to compromise to allow a multi-challenger regatta to go ahead next year.

‘‘We didn't originally. We sat in a neutral position to help to mediate between the two parties,'' he said.

‘‘It was only after Alinghi just would not negotiate that we took a side and supported Oracle.''

He said Team NZ had known for some months that the next cup match would be one-on-one battle between Alinghi and Oracle under the trophy's Deed of Gift.

His syndicate's strategy had been to stay strong and to prepare for the event that would come after that.

Design work had continued and members of the sailing team would race in the northern hemisphere this year.

Dalton said Justice Cahn's decision did not affect Team NZ's own legal action against Alinghi, and that would continue to proceed.

This month, Team NZ announced it was seeking ‘‘tens of millions of euros'' in compensation from Alinghi over the delay to the next multisyndicate regatta. 

It also filed an anti-trust suit that, like Oracle's, questioned Alinghi's acceptance of CNEV as the main challenger, arguing that Alinghi had abused its power as cup holder and acted to stifle competition.

While Alinghi has proposed that its showdown with Oracle be held in July 2009, Dalton said the Deed of Gift stipulated that it should be staged by July of this year, unless there was mutual agreement between the parties.

An Oracle spokesman, asked about timing, said only that the San Francisco-based syndicate had been calling for a match in October this year.

‘‘We want to have this race as soon as possible,'' he said.

Bertarelli said in a statement: ‘‘Let's settle this on the water.''

Alinghi's lead counsel, Lucien Masmejan, said Ellison had eliminated the other competition and gained access to a cup match.

‘‘We have decided not to appeal the decision and we look forward to getting the fight back on the water and meeting BMW Oracle Racing on the start line of a Deed of Gift match in July 2009.''

Both Alinghi and Oracle have said they would revert to a multichallenger format if they were to win their head-to-head clash.

Masmejan said Alinghi was committed to a venue and date of Valencia 2011.

Cabinet Minister Trevor Mallard said the Government was still committed to supporting a challenge for the America's Cup.

It still looked most likely it would happen in 2011, he said.

Mr Mallard said taxpayers got their money's worth from the last regatta.

‘‘It was an enormous investment by the Government.

‘‘It was something that worked really well - a lot of New Zealand profile,'' he said.

‘‘Of course we would have preferred to have had [the next one] earlier, but that's the subject of separate litigation between Team New Zealand and Alinghi".

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