The America’s Cup action is leaving the courtrooms and heading out to the water. We hope. In a unanimous decision, the New York Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) being the Challenger of Record for the 33rd America’s Cup.
Immediately after the conclusion of the 32nd America’s Cup in 2007, the winner, Alinghi, selected a “paper” yacht club, Club Nautico Espanol de Velo (CNEV), as the challenger of record. The problem was that CNEV didn’t actually satisfy any of the conditions to be the challenger…things like members, previous races, a clubhouse, not even, as famously pointed out, a web page. So our long legal battle started, GGYC sued in the New York Courts (home of the Deed of Gift), they won then they lost on appeal and then had a tie and finally yesterday won what seems like the final legal battle… Details