Don’t Appeal Cup Ruling, Conner Says : ‘It Should Be Settled Out on the Water,’ Skipper Believes
U.S. skipper Dennis Conner said today he is disappointed by a court judgment that took the America’s Cup yachting trophy away from him, but he said he does not want to see an appeal against the decision.
Asked in a television interview if he favors an appeal, Conner said: “No. I think it’s high time the event moved on.”
Conner said he believes that the courtroom is no place to vie for the coveted cup.
“I think it should be settled out on the water,” Conner told CBS Radio. “I think sailors worldwide are anxious to get back to what the America’s Cup is all about.”
He added, however, that any appeal is not his decision.
‘Up to Them’
“I’m not the San Diego Yacht Club, I’m not the America’s Cup Organizing Committee. I haven’t spoken to anyone from San Diego. It’s up to them,” said Conner.
Judge Carmen Ciparick ruled in a New York court on Tuesday that the San Diego Yacht Club had violated the spirit of the Deed of Gift--the rules that govern the America’s Cup--by defending the cup in a catamaran against the huge monohull sloop New Zealand in September last year. (Story, Part I, Page 1.)
The San Diego Yacht Club will decide within a few days whether to appeal the judge’s order that it must forfeit the America’s Cup to New Zealand, a spokesman for the club said.
“I will abide by the umpire’s decision,” said Conner, who arrived in Sydney from Tokyo on a business trip this morning to be greeted by the news that he had lost the trophy.
Conner later flew out of Sydney for Auckland, New Zealand.
In San Diego, attorneys were briefing the boards of the San Diego Yacht Club and its event organizer, the America’s Cup Organizing Committee, said Pat Goddard, yacht club commodore.
“The issue facing us now is to do what is best for the America’s Cup,” he said. “If the Cup goes to New Zealand, the commodore of San Diego Yacht Club will personally deliver it.”
The trophy will remain in San Diego until the decision about an appeal is made, said Goddard.