Just saw this...

BOSTON (Reuters) - A New York state court has ruled in favor of U.S. syndicate BMW Oracle in a lawsuit filed against holders Alinghi over the staging of the next America's Cup, BMW Oracle said on Tuesday.

BMW Oracle had taken Alinghi to court, arguing that it had chosen an illegitimate Spanish yacht club as the main challenger with whom it could set the rules for the 33rd Americas Cup.

The ruling disclosed on Tuesday means BMW Oracle, which is based in San Francisco, has the right to race Alinghi head-to-head alone next year.

However, the club said in a statement it would seek to run the next America's Cup with as many challengers as possible.

Well, it would be nice to dream that this means we'll get to see those 90-foot cats (or tris), but most likely, they'll sit down and come up with something with one hull.

Mike

I don't aggree, I think they are desperate to get the multis into it. They know how well they will transfer to viewing.
Worth remembering the Swiss dude has a lot of winning form on cats.

What will the Olympics look like if the most viewed sailing on the planet is cats or tris.......oh....and will anyone beat the French on tris???

AC multis will change the way kids look at sailing.

P. S, I have just heard the news again on this.
Oracle want the cup. They have Coutts. Coutts vs Butterball would be good fun but neither are exactly experts at MultI......
If I was Larry, I would be backing Coutts in a mono.

If Bert-N-Ernie wanted multis he could have had them in his original AC 33 protocol - CNEV would have signed anything he put in front of them.

Larry is on record as preferring monos.

Still, one can hope.

Nah, not going to happen. Although Alinghi talked a big game the past week threatening that they wouldn't appeal and would battle it out on multis, they REALLY softened up today saying they look forward negotiating with Oracle to put together a good event...OOOORrrrrr that's some ploy to give them more development time for a multi and keep Oracle of center...hmmmm....either side could break negotiations down to garbage and immediately fall back into a disagreeable contest as specified in the deed....this could be a really expensive game of cat and mouse.

I think Oracle's intent is to have the event on the same type of boats as last time in '09 in Valencia and avoid the delays that would result from an entirely new platform.

Very rational, but did you know that someone built a 66ft boat with the exact proportions of the new 90ft IACC monohull and that Alinghi's afterguard is sailing the boat?

After this "coincidence", it is conceivable that Oracle could prefer a multihull, so that all teams start from scratch, instead of giving one year of scale modeling and development advantage to Alinghi.

I wonder if Oracle already knew about the "model" when they started legal action?

I know there were a lot of allegations about that but nothing I ever heard confirmed...that's interesting. No team was allowed to build more than one boat, but nothing in the rule that was just tossed out said you couldn't build more than one that was similar....I never thought of that.

And according to the same source it is very likely that construction started before the new rule was disclosed. I guess this is the type of thing that can make two friends fight in court.

I think they should race in carbon fiber A-scows or new bigger scows (50'? +?) with no upper wind limit. Point like a witch to weather, plane downwind, and if you F up, over you go! Only thing holding you down is the crew and boat handling skills- no lead.

http://www.victorybydesign.org/V38.htm

The AC is not about speed or they would all be using mega cats, it's about getting an advantage, usually through design secrets, and it's about spending money. If you, as the cup holder, can make it too expensive for 90% of your challengers, you have narrowed the field down to just a few real competitors. And if you can buy all the top tallent, get a jump on the -new- boat design, a design -you- came up with for no other reason than to get a jump on your competition, well, I would say you have quite an advantage. The racing was getting too close this year because the boat design was too well known and developed. So what do they do if they want that advantage? Change it.

To us on the outside it all seems too stupid for words, but if it was "your" cup to lose, and all the money that goes along with it, what would you do? Have more fair racing? I don't think so. It's all about money, not fair racing.