Panel Urges Appeal of Cup Decision
An advisory committee for the San Diego Yacht Club has recommended that the club’s board of directors appeal Tuesday’s ruling by a judge that took the America’s Cup away from Dennis Conner and the SDYC and awarded it to New Zealand.
Malin Burnham, head of the Sail America Foundation, announced Saturday that the committee, made up of members of the SDYC board of directors, the America’s Cup Organizing Committee and advisers from other cities, decided unanimously during a two-hour meeting that New York Supreme Court Judge Carmen Ciparick’s ruling was inconsistent with three previous decisions made by the court during deliberation over Michael Fay’s New Zealand challenge.
“We solidly, whole-heartedly believe (the appeal) is in the best interests of the America’s Cup,” Burnham said. “It is our belief, based on experience from our attorneys, that the circuit court of appeals in New York will look much more toward the law of the state and much less on the emotional appeal of fairness of any other criteria other than the law itself. We believe that our chances are more than reasonable.”
SDYC Commodore Patrick Goddard said the yacht club will make a final decision on the appeal by Monday. He is one of four members of the nine-person SDYC board of directors who served on the advisory committee and supported an appeal.
In Tuesday’s ruling, Ciparick stated that by using a catamaran against Fay’s 132-foot sloop, San Diego had created a “gross mismatch” not in accordance with the “friendly competition between foreign countries” intended by the 100-year old Deed of Gift.
Ciparick also said the defender and the challenger’s yacht had to be somewhat competitive. “We’ve been unable to determine what that means,” Burnham said. “Does that mean they have to be exact? I don’t think so. She didn’t use those words.”
Burnham said the SDYC has received strong worldwide support from both members of the yachting community and law firms, offering assistance and advice.
San Diego’s business community, fearing the loss of a potential $1.2-billion economic boost that a Cup defense would bring to the area, also favors an appeal.
Tuesday’s decision, Burnham said, will definitely cause postponement of the 1991 America’s Cup, but he said it is uncertain how much added delay there will be if the SDYC goes ahead with the appeal.
“We have no emotional interest in spending our lives in courtrooms,” Burnham said. “That is distasteful to those of us in the sporting world and other worlds I’m sure. On the other hand, not to appeal flies in the face of what is good for the Cup.
“We strongly believe that a court of law anywhere in the world should not have the power to reverse the outcome of a sporting event, whether it’s the America’s Cup, Olympic events, the World Series or the Super Bowl.”
The ACOC has already felt the effects of Tuesday’s decision and has been trimmed drastically. The office, said Burnham, will stay open only to answer mail and phone calls. Staff members responsible for event management have been let go.
“The realism is that resources are thin,” Burnham said. “We didn’t expect the decision, therefore we didn’t expect that the office would close. We hope certainly that that will be a temporary thing.”
Seven of the committee’s eight full-time workers were let go Friday.
Committee spokesman Tom Mitchell, who also will be looking for a new job, said the organization has debts of about $3.1 million. He said, however, there is a plan for payment of creditors.
Commodore Toby Morcom of New Zealand’s Mercury Bat Yacht Club, in a response Sunday from Auckland, urged San Diego Yacht Club Commodore Pat Goddard to forgo an appeal.
“The world at large, including the great majority of America, agrees with the court’s decision,” Morcom said. “San Diego Yacht Club should now abide by the ruling of the referee and, in doing so, earn the respect of everyone.