If you are a fan of the America’s Cup sailboat races and have been following the drama unfold in the New York Court of Appeals, then you’ll be interested in what happened today regarding the defender, Alinghi of Switzerland and the challenger of record, BMW/Oracle of the Golden Gate Yacht Club in San Francisco. Read on for what the blog Valencia Sailing posted on their website today: (July 30, 2009) – In the America’s Cup legal case before the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Justice Kornreich’s latest order (today) couldn’t be any clearer. The Deed of Gift gives Alinghi, the Defender of the 33rd America’s Cup, the “very advantage” to modify the rules at will, “unfortunately for GGYC”. As a result… Details
Sail-World’s Swiss correspondent gives his impressions of the America’s Cup Defender, Alinghi 5, launched just last week in le Bouveret:
Alinghi 5 has been out sailing four days now and although the wind hardly ever reach above 10 knots, we have a pretty good idea on the boat itself and how things work in its actual configuration, but please remember the Alinghi PR people have said: ‘This is the first step in our development process towards defending the America’ Cup next year’.
Let’s review the boat starting with a few design comments.
Alinghi 5 is the evolution of … Details & Pictures
Top international sailing photographer, Carlo Borlenghi presents a gallery of images from around le Bouveret as Alinghi 5 searches for wind to undertake further test sailing.
Check them out here
While most of the court battle between the Alinghi and BMW Oracle America’s Cup teams has dealt with dates and venues, and directly applies to few other than the Cup teams themselves, this latest legal dispute over powered systems at the Cup effects all racers and race fans, and hits at the very core of the sport. The latest change in the Racing Rules of Sailing, which may be construed in order to allow powered systems for yacht racing, brings up a very important question, not only in regard to this drawn out saga over the next America’s Cup, but as it pertains to the future of yacht racing as a whole: Is yacht racing about the boats, or the sailors?
Before we delve into the issues of people vs. machines on the water, we must first …Â Details