Americans, Swiss finally to decided America’s Cup on water after long court fight

America’s Cup finally turns from court to sailing

VALENCIA, Spain — They’re finally going to sail the America’s Cup.

A dispute between two of the world’s richest men that kept sailing’s marquee regatta locked up in court has been resolved to the point that two-time defending champion Alinghi and American challenger BMW Oracle Racing will begin their best-of-three showdown Monday, weather-permitting.

It could be quite a show off the coast of Valencia.

BMW Oracle Racing, owned by software tycoon Larry Ellison, will sail the trimaran USA. The Swiss, headed by biotech mogul Ernesto Bertarelli, will counter with Alinghi 5, a catamaran. Both are 90 feet long and capable of sailing at three times the speed of the wind.

They’ll compete for the oldest trophy in international sports in the 33rd running of the event, which began in 1851. The silver trophy will either remain at the Societe Nautique de Geneve on the shores of Lake Geneva or be spirited back to America after a 15-year absence.

“If we win the America’s Cup, I think it absolutely is worth it,” Ellison said in an interview Friday at his team’s base. “It’s the oldest trophy in sports. It hasn’t been in the United States for a very, very long time, and we’d love to return the America’s Cup to America.”

While the court fight may have strengthened the perception that the America’s Cup is a haven for egos run amok, it also led to the development of two of the fastest, most powerful sailboats ever built. USA will use a radical wing sail that towers 223 feet off the deck and has flaps like an airplane wing.

While the boats are mind-boggling, no one really knows what to expect.

“This will be quite possibly the most spectacular America’s Cup ever, in some ways,” said Paul Cayard, an American veteran of the America’s Cup, Olympics and round-the-world races who will broadcast the races for Eurosport.

“The boats are technologically the most advanced sailboats ever built,” Cayard said. “The wing, for example, on BMW Oracle, is an incredible piece of technology, something that I’m sure Boeing and Aerospatiale engineers would marvel at themselves.”

Money has been no object for either team in this nautical grudge match. Rough estimates are that each side has spent $200 million on their campaigns, including on designers, engineers, boatbuilders, the sailors, and, of course, the high-priced lawyers and public relations people.

The nasty spat between Ellison, the CEO of Oracle Corp., and Bertarelli started over the interpretation of the Deed of Gift, the 1887 document that governs the America’s Cup.

Because Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing couldn’t agree to rules for a conventional regatta involving several challengers sailing for the right to meet the defender, it defaulted to a rare head-to-head showdown, or Deed of Gift Match.

“It shouldn’t be this hard to get a fair set of racing rules,” Ellison said. “I regret we were forced into taking any court action at all. But we really were forced into it.”

Ellison said no one but Alinghi could win the America’s Cup with the original set of rules proposed by Bertarelli’s syndicate.

“Whoever heard of a sport where the umpire works for one the competitors? What he asked for was unprecedented, unsporting, and excuse me, but crazy,” Ellison said. “And the court agreed with us.”

There’s also the Russell Coutts factor.

Coutts won the America’s Cup twice with his native New Zealand and then with Alinghi in 2003, helping the Swiss become the first European team to win sailing’s biggest prize.

Coutts had a falling out with Bertarelli, was fired in 2004 and forced to sit out the 2007 America’s Cup. Ellison hired Coutts as soon as possible, as skipper and CEO.

“He thought with a fair set of rules he couldn’t come up with a team that could beat Russell Coutts,” Ellison said. “If you want to win the America’s Cup, I suggest you hire Russell Coutts. His record’s not too bad. He’s been in three of them, and won them all.”

After the teams expended all that time, money and effort on the court fight, the actual racing will be limited to a best-of-three series, which is called for in the Deed of Gift.

The first race will be 20 miles into the wind and 20 miles back to the starting line. The second race will be a triangle with 13-mile legs, the first into the wind and the last two legs across the wind, which can be a bit tricky for multihulls.

Bertarelli has said he’ll likely steer Alinghi 5. Ellison will sit out Race 1 due to weight constraints but plans to be aboard for Race 2, as navigator. If a third race is needed, it will be the same course as the first race.

There had been talk of a best-of-seven series, but as usual, the sides couldn’t agree.

If Alinghi wins, the teams are likely to return to court because the Americans contend that the Swiss sails are American-made, violating the Deed of Gift’s provision that the yachts be constructed in the country the teams represent.

For the time being, though, a New York judge told the bickering billionaires to go sail.