33rd America's Cup

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The two yachts during the first competition on February 12, 2010
BMW Oracle Racing Yacht BOR 90
Alinghi 5

The 33rd America's Cup was the continuation of the 32nd sailing competition of the America's Cup between the Swiss Alinghi team from the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) and the challengers from the United States with the BMW Oracle Racing 90 crew from Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC). From a sporting point of view, the 33rd America's Cup was decided in favor of the challenger after only 2 races and no preliminary runs. However, a number of legal proceedings between the two teams had caused a stir in the run-up to the competition. First there was a dispute about who was allowed to challenge the Alinghi team, then about the venue, about the boat surveying rules and finally about where the ship parts are allowed to be manufactured.

Following the decision of the Supreme Court in New York on December 15, 2009, Alinghi's request to race in the Arab emirate of Ra's al-Khaimah was not granted. Instead, they sailed off the coast of Valencia again .

The two races of the 33rd America's Cup finally took place on February 12 and 14, 2010 in front of Valencia in Spain.

Legal disputes

To the challenger

The 33rd America's Cup was to be held again in the Spanish city of Valencia between May and July 2009 , according to the successful defender Alinghi . In order to increase the attractiveness, it was planned to introduce a new boat class. As the “Challenger of Record”, the newly founded Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV) should help determine the new rules. The CNEV represents the Desafío Español team , which had already competed quite successfully at the 32nd Cup, but for the Spanish umbrella organization Real Federación Española de Vela .

This constellation caused some unrest in the cup circus. The Golden Gate Yacht Club , for which Larry Ellisons sails with BMW Oracle Racing, was of the opinion that the CNEV did not meet the requirements of the “Deed of Gift” foundation charter regarding the Challenger of Record. This is because the CNEV neither had its own ship nor a club and had never held its own regatta. The GGYC, for its part, had submitted a challenge under the rules of the "Deed of Gift" and filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court of New York. On November 27, 2007, Judge Cahn decided that the CNEV's challenge should not be recognized. The GGYC thus became the first challenger. It was now up to Alinghi to approve a 9-point compromise proposal submitted by the GGYC. At first it looked as if BMW Oracle Racing had the support of other challenger teams because they felt they were being disadvantaged by the very vaguely formulated provisional regulations by Alinghi and CNEV. However, Alinghi decided to challenge Judge Cahn's decision. So the phase of uncertainty about the future of the 33rd America's Cup was extended.

The United Internet Team Germany had also submitted an official challenge, but in view of the uncertainties in the current 33rd Cup cycle, the three main sponsors (United Internet, Audi AG and Porsche Consulting) decided on March 10th, 2008 by mutual agreement. March disbanded. A double-digit million dollar claim for damages filed by Team New Zealand against Alinghi during the same period caused additional complications.

In the course, however, reported next to the South African Team Shosholoza and the Team New Zealand and Team Origin , a new syndicate of British Royal Thames Yacht Club at. In addition, Alinghi had accommodated the challengers and brought the rules for the new boat class forward to October 31, 2007.

Surprisingly, the New York Court upheld Alinghi's appeal against the first decision. The CNEV was again Challenger of Record and despite the fact that the GGYC challenged the new ruling, preparations, including negotiations on the new boat class, resumed.

The newly presented rules for the new America's Cup Class no longer set the dimensions with a so-called rating formula in which the individual values ​​depend on one another, but with a box rule in which the specified maximum values ​​must be observed independently of one another.

On April 2, 2009, the Golden Gate Yacht Club (BMW Oracle Racing) was named the legitimate Challenger of Record by the Supreme Court of New York. Negotiations for a series of eliminations with several participants failed on April 23.

The 33rd America's Cup was the first since 1988 in the run-up to which there was no Louis Vuitton Cup to determine the challenger. On July 13, 2007, shortly after the end of the 32nd America's Cup , sponsor Louis Vuitton announced the end of its almost 25-year sponsorship activities with regard to the cup. The reason given was the increasing commercialization of the regatta under the leadership of Team Alinghi . This is no longer compatible with the company's image and values. Instead, the company hosted the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series and Louis Vuitton Trophy in 2009 and 2010 - independently of the America's Cup, but with litigation in mind . Louis Vuitton announced at the same time that the development of the America's Cup would be followed and that a return as a sponsor could not be ruled out.

About the date and place of execution

Alinghi initially planned to hold the competition again in Valencia , Spain, in May 2009, ten months after accepting the challenge. However, GGYC took the position that the ten-month preparatory phase only began with the court decision making them the official challenger. There was another trial, the result of which was that the race should take place in February 2010.

Alinghi disputed this because, according to the foundation charter, a race in the northern hemisphere was not permitted until May at the earliest and therefore tried at least to change the location. Against this, an objection was raised because the proposed United Arab Emirates were not a valid venue according to the "Deed of Gift". Eventually Alinghi had to give in and set the deadline for February 2010. The venue would definitely be Valencia.

About the construction of the yachts

Further disputes arose about which rules would apply to the construction of the yachts and how the yachts should be measured. Alinghi wanted to install ballast tanks with changeable contents and drive the winches of motors. Oracle was of the opinion that this was forbidden under the given rules. The judges agreed with Alinghi on this point, as none of these aids were prohibited in the “Deed of Gift”.

GGYC wanted to keep trying to keep the disclosure of its design data secret for as long as possible. The America's Cup generally stipulates that the challenger must disclose his design at the time of the challenge, but the defender does not. Here the court ruled that later changes to the design are still permitted and should only be disclosed shortly before the race.

About the regatta rules

Basically, the "Deed of Gift" gives the opponents great freedom as to how the actual regatta is to be held. This includes, for example, how many races are driven or the weather conditions in which they are sailing. But because the parties could not agree on this either, the rule that the cup should be awarded in a best-of-three series was applied. In fact, only two regattas then took place, as the winner had already been determined.

In February 2010, when the regattas actually took place, various mutual complaints and appeals were still pending. However, these were already ended in March when Ernesto Bertarelli signed a contract with his opponent for Alinghi, according to which he accepted the defeat, but all disputes should be put aside.

After the long legal back-and-forth, this very short presentation of the actual sport resulted in the America's Cup losing popularity, especially in Europe. There has even been speculation that the America's Cup might go under with the 33rd edition. In the same year Bertarelli announced that he and his team would not take part in the next edition of the Cup because he considered the conditions of Oracle to be unacceptable.

The 34th America's Cup was then held in San Francisco in 2013 with even larger catamarans.

Boats

The Oracle team built a trimaran in Anacortes , Washington state . This was initially called BMW Oracle Racing 90 and was later renamed USA 17 . The Swiss tried to defend the cup with the Alinghi 5 catamaran . The boats were measured at 90 feet (27 m).

The boats were sailed by a crew of up to 20 people (previously 17). The sail area was increased (mast height 37.9 m, mainsail: 300 m 2 , headsail: 171 m 2 , unlimited spinnaker). Despite the overall larger dimensions, the ship is increased in width of max. Displacement of 5.3 m (previously 3.5 m) less water (only 23 instead of 24 t); so that the boats should be able to accelerate considerably faster.

For the first time in the history of the Cup, the teams competed without a grinder , which is replaced by a diesel engine that does not drive the boat, but rather as a power source for the hydraulics and winches . A motor permanently generates more power and weighs less than 8–10 grinders. The fact that Oracle used a rigid wing profile instead of the mainsail instead of a cloth sail also caused a stir.

decision

The opening ceremony was planned on Sunday, February 7th 2010, the first race on the following Monday, the second and third competitions two days later on Wednesday and Friday. No wind on the first day thwarted this plan. The first race took place on Friday, February 12th. The winner was the American team with a 15:30 minute lead after the Swiss had to complete a penalty loop, but at this point they had already been behind with 10:00 minutes or 3300 meters.

On the second day of the race, Sunday, February 14, 2010, the BMW Oracle crew also won the competition. The American boat won by 5:26 minutes after Alinghi was still ahead on the first course. BMW Oracle thus won the 33rd America's Cup.

Observers saw the main reason for the superiority of USA 17 on the rigid wing instead of a sail (see also hydrofoil ). The wing was subdivided several times in height, creating individual trimmable wing profiles and making better use of the winch.

Teams

SwitzerlandSwitzerland Alinghi 5 (Team Alinghi) - defender

role Surname
Bowman NetherlandsNetherlands Piet van Nieuwenhuijzen
CanadaCanada Curtis Blewett
New ZealandNew Zealand Rodney Ardern
On-wind trimmer New ZealandNew Zealand Simon Daubney
Before-the-wind trimmer SwitzerlandSwitzerland Nils Frei
Mainsail trimmer New ZealandNew Zealand Warwick Fleury
Traveler SwitzerlandSwitzerland Pierre-Yves Jorand
Helmsman SwitzerlandSwitzerland Ernesto Bertarelli
tactician New ZealandNew Zealand Brad Butterworth
New ZealandNew Zealand Murray Jones
navigator SpainSpain Juan Vila
South AfricaSouth Africa FranceFrance Jan Dekker
FranceFrance Loïck Peyron
Pre-starters New ZealandNew Zealand Peter Evans

United StatesUnited States USA 17 (BMW Oracle Racing) - challenger

role Surname
Bowman New ZealandNew Zealand Brad Webb
Pitman ItalyItaly Simone de Mari
Genoa trimmer New ZealandNew Zealand Ross Halcrow
Wing trimmer NetherlandsNetherlands Dirk de Ridder
AustraliaAustralia Joey Newton
tactician United StatesUnited States John Kostecki
Skipper / helmsman AustraliaAustralia James Spithill
navigator ItalyItaly Matteo Plazzi
FranceFrance Thierry Fouchier
New ZealandNew Zealand Matthew Mason
Afterguard United StatesUnited States Larry Ellison

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ MULTIHULL BATTLE ( English ) America's Cup Event Authority LLC. Archived from the original on March 15, 2015. Retrieved April 21, 2017.
  2. ↑ Valencia Sailing: Can one become a member of the Club Náutico Español de Vela?
  3. ^ Richard Gladwell: America's Cup document says RNZYS against Protocol . Sail-World NZL. October 8, 2007. Archived from the original on July 19, 2011. Retrieved on April 16, 2009.
  4. ↑ dpa: Sailing contracts will not be extended ... Team Germany before the end | The German America's Cup sailing team is expected to be dissolved on March 31st. In: Hamburger Abendblatt - abendblatt.de , March 11, 2008.
  5. ↑ handelsblatt.com Louis Vuitton no longer sponsors the America's Cup
  6. ↑ handelsblatt.com Louis Vuitton is considering withdrawal
  7. ↑ Index No. 602446/07 Order - Golden Gate Yacht Club against Société Nautique de Genève ( English , PDF ) Supreme Court of the State of New York. May 12, 2008. Archived from the original on July 24, 2011. Retrieved on April 21, 2017.
  8. ^ Standoff may spark Cup-like regattas New Zealand Herald , April 26, 2009
  9. ↑ Fred Meyer: Letter regarding the “33rd America's Cup” from Société Nautique Genève to the Golden Gate Yacht Club ( English , PDF ) April 23, 2009. Archived from the original on July 24, 2011. Retrieved on April 21, 2017.
  10. ↑ The Deed of Gift says: “In case the parties cannot mutually agree upon the terms of a match, then three races shall be sailed, and the winner of two of such races shall be entitled to the Cup. All such races shall be on ocean courses, free from headlands, as follows: The first race, twenty nautical miles to windward and return; the second race an equilateral triangular race of thirty-nine nautical miles, the first side of which shall be a beat to windward; the third race (if necessary) twenty nautical miles to windward and return; and one week day shall intervene between the conclusion of one race and the starting of the next race. These ocean courses shall be practicable in all parts for vessels of twenty-two feet draft of water, and shall be selected by the Club holding the Cup; and these races shall be sailed subject to its rules and sailing regulations so far as the same do not conflict with the provisions of this deed of gift, but without any times allowances whatever. The challenged Club shall not be required to name its representative vessel until at a time agreed upon for the start, but the vessel when named must compete in all the races, and each of such races must be completed within seven hours. "
  11. ↑ America's Cup - Taking Off or Sinking . Spiegel.de. February 15, 2010. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  12. ↑ America's Cup - Alinghi does without classics . Spiegel.de. November 26, 2010. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  13. ↑ The measurement of the length of a sailing boat usually refers to the length of the hull without attachments such as oars or bowsprit, as was even decided for the Cup by court order
  14. ^ Gregor Henger: The new America's Cup Class - an attractive yacht. Considerably increased acceleration with less water displacement to be expected . In: NZZ , November 16, 2007.
  15. ^ Walter Wille: Games without borders . In: FAS , January 3, 2010.
  16. ↑ 33rd Americas Cup - Race 1 Postponed, YachtsAndYachting.com, February 8, 2010
  17. ↑ America's Cup - Wing is King . Spiegel.de. February 15, 2010. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  18. ↑ America's Cup - high-tech giants at the limit . spiegel.de. February 6, 2010. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  19. ↑ BMW Oracle wins America's Cup , ESPN .com , February 14, 2010.

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