New Zealand’s Tack to N.Y. Court Stalls Yacht Club’s Plans

A court order obtained by a New Zealand syndicate Tuesday put San Diego’s America’s Cup planning on hold, a day before the site and dates were to be formally announced.

According to a press release issued from Auckland, the temporary restraining order, obtained from a New York State Supreme Court, bars the San Diego Yacht Club from taking any action regarding the next America’s Cup defense pending a court hearing in New York next Wednesday.

Michael Fay heads the New Zealand Challenge, which seeks to force San Diego to defend the Cup in June, instead of in 1991 as planned. Since handing the challenge to club Commodore Fred Frye at lunch July 17, Fay said, he has not received a firm, formal response.

“In the last six weeks, the club has consistently disregarded our notice of challenge and had stated its intention to conduct a defense of the America’s Cup in 12 meters in 1991,” Fay said in the release. “This has left us no option but to ask the court to intercede and decide on the issues involved.”

His lawyers filed the request for a restraining order Monday and Sail America--the organization that sponsored skipper Dennis Conner and his Stars & Stripes and which has the responsibility of managing the next Cup defense--was served Tuesday afternoon, less than 24 hours before the press conference at the San Diego Yacht Club was scheduled to start.

The order was sought in New York because that state’s court is the custodian of the Deed of Gift, a 100-year-old document that stipulates the conditions for challenging and sailing for the Cup.

Yacht club and Sail America officials met late Tuesday in their lawyers’ offices and said they will have no comment on the development until today’s press conference, which they planned to conduct as scheduled at 11 a.m.

“It (the press conference) may be a little different than we planned,” an aide said.

Fay has cited the terms of the deed, which states that a challenger “shall give ten months’ notice in writing, naming the days of the proposed races” and must provide certain dimensions of the boat he proposes to sail.

Fay called for early June, 1988, in a boat measuring 90 feet at the water line, the maximum allowed under the deed. He planned to start building it this week.

Fay said, “It is in the interest of everyone to deal with this matter quickly. We are sure that the San Diego Yacht Club is just as keen as we are to resolve the issue.”