<******** letter that Alinghi publishes, they just dig that hole deeper and deeper.

Even if the boats were reversed, and truly BMWO's tri wasn't cooler than the Alinghi piece-of-****-held-together-by-strings-catamaran, I would still wish them humiliating failure in every aspect of their lives.

Building a new wing outside of the US will not be allowed under CiC...that is very clear. If sail construction or installing a freakin' bow sprit are points of contention, then building and installing a whole mast/wing combo is definitely not allowed.

Larry and Ernesto have been so unwilling to negotiate anything that time for repairs will not be allowed. The races will go on.

Yes, Alinghi tried to have a sock-puppet challenger that they controlled, and the remaining challengers were unhappy. But, I would be willing to bet that there are a whole lot of "sailing fans" worldwide, to say nothing of the AC-caliber sailors, who are MUCH more unhappy with BMWO right now, since the whole event is off-kilter and they have to sit out an entire cycle.

Larry may be right on principle, but that won't make him popular, regardless of any plans beyond this cycle.

Mike

Were there such times? Keelhauled: Unsportsmanlike Conduct and the America's Cup (Hardcover; Doug Riggs (Author)

Seriously? You think this is Larry's fault? Larry's saving the cup for an egomaniac lead sailing team that sought to turn the whole event into their own profit center (illegal for a charitable trust) and fix the rules so they could never lose.

I find it hard to believe that the majority of the sailing world is in favor of Alinghi. Though I would agree that nobody wants it to be like it is, nearly all of the traditional big America's Cup players side with BMWO. The only one I heard speak out publicly negatively about BMWO was Shashaloosha (sorry for murdering their name....no time to look up).

Time will tell if Larry brings the cup back to a traditional sense moreso than Bertarelli. I obviously don't know for sure but I do hope he will.

What is the basis for "the majority of the sailing world is in favor of Alinghi"? I have no idea..
I am sick and tired of Ernestos games, but I find Larry to be of the same kind. I just want to see those two beast race.

Jake, I'd say that they are both at fault.

Obviously, other challengers said that they were unhappy with the protocol, but at least at that point, it was a protocol that allowed them to compete. You can't possibly think Larry has endeared himself with any of the professional sailors that have been forced to seek employment elsewhere, to say nothing of the investments of the team owners.

Of course, it's also a falure of Ernesto to come to the table to negotiate after the DoG challenge was made. Anyne who reads that original doc can see that BMWO never intended for it to go this far, they always left the door open to negotiate something more traditional. Once Ernesto called their bluff, they had to move forward with the tri.

The only people who "win" are multihull fans, not that there's anything wrong with that...

Mike

Its recently been disclosed that the press over in Europe, has by many accounts, and unsurprisingly been pretty rose-colored towards Alinghi.

All I can say is that when the NYSC slaps you down something like 6 times in a row for shenanigans pulled - then there should really be no debate on who the good guy is.

Plus LE has stated that he wants to put the cup in a third party management role instead of the way it is now - so all this mess can be avoided.

as a distant spectator (and lover of cats) i think its great! i have never seen any cats or tri's like this.. its exciting and i can't wait to see it in action.

I could personally care less who owns what boat.. who is corrupt.. who is manipulating.. who is a bad sport.. and who is using the legal system as a tool (welcome to the litigious world)...

i doubt i would care (or watch) at all if it was 2 mono's.

If the saying is true, all press is good press.. then maybe in the long run.. this will all turn out good! maybe it will bring more interest to Cat sailing.. and who knows.... maybe you guys can get more people to your races because of it...

i also dont care who wins.. (except my love of cats makes me lean toward the cat). go ahead.. form your mob... get your rope..i will wear a turtleneck to make it easier for you...

and my last point.. this thread is the best thread on this forum now.. and its certainly more fun to watch you guys take it personally and get all excited than to read more about the US govt .. (which i only do out of pure boredom)

Latest news, the Jury has been put in place officially. Finally we can get some of these stupid nit picky things out of the way.

also, new BMWO video hotness: (watch full screen)

true that!

awesome!

The thing is that both of these guys will not be sad to dump these boats after the last race in 6 weeks time and go back to racing on 15knot s...boxes. The whole multihull thing was just a DOG ploy to piss each other off.
What's going to happen to the boats?

[It will actually be less than 6 weeks because the nature of multihulls means that one will be faster than the other and it will only take 4 races to wrap the whole saga up]

I have not noticed, and I have not heard about any such survey. Got a link to the survey?
Why it should be unsurprising if it was so is beyound me. Sounds like somebody are playing "us and them" games.

Its unsurprising because over here, we get Pro-BMWO stuff. Its only natural to root for the home team.

There's a thread on SA about it if you really care. I didn't mean to insinuate something sinister is going on.

Well, europe is pretty diversified. I actually cheer on BMW-O becouse the boat is amazing, they have had a good internet presence, and I dont like how Ernesto have handled the AC. I have not caught any strong bias for Alinghi in the sailing press here. Perhaps in other countries or non-english sections of Europe. Oh well..

Do you guys in the US feel more of a connection with Bolivia for example than the UK or Italy?
Europe is only a loose group of countries and I personally don't feel a strong connection with most of them (I don't even know them all!).
I was in Spain last week and you cant even talk to anyone because no-one speaks english, so much for a united europe!

Anyway, for business I read a lot of tech news and whenever LE's name pops up it is always to do with something negative.
I also dont believe you get to be the 4th richest man alive because you have such a great sense of ethics and fairplay.

I do think that Alinghi was treated too harshly over RAK.
Right now it is storming and snowing around Valencia.

One American sportsman I really like though is Robby Gordon doing the Dakar in Chile/Argentina right now, great guy!
I really hope he makes the podium this time.

I find the regular AC matches completely boring. Ugly monohulls fighting according to impenetrable rules is as interesting as watching paint dry.

At least for this AC we have some excitement, impressive boats of amazing size, and hopefully some spectacle when one of those boat will spectacularly fail/capsize/sink during the first race

Who wins is completely irrelevant, both team owners are assholes with monster egos and no sense of sportsmanship anyway.

I certainly feel closer to the people in at least 'core'-Europe, than to any others in the world. Although we all speak different languages, the thinking and the values are pretty alike and both of us will experience the day where english will become the official language in the EU.
I think it is our major advantage that we are so different, this ensures devolopment and progress. Although, I have to confess, if Europe needs the influence of countries like Romania, Bulgaria or even Turkey I'm not really sure of ...

No but I'll cheer for the Canuckistans over those two anyday. Heck I even like the Mexicans in the 34th America's Cup!