Yacht Club Should Give Up the Cup, Then Win It Back

If the San Diego Yacht Club goes ahead and appeals the recent decision that stripped it of the America’s Cup, it will be a terrible and expensive mistake. The interpretation of the 100-year-old Deed of Gift should be left to historians, not lawyers. And, if you’ll remember, it was their lawyers who said they were on solid legal ground in racing a catamaran. The appeal will be a divisive and wasteful exercise, and no matter what kind of case they bring to the New York Appeals Court, they will never win.

San Diego has the greatest sailor in the world, so why fight for the Cup in a New York courtroom? If the New Zealand yachters want to celebrate and cherish a prize they didn’t earn on the water, then fly the damned thing over there tomorrow and give it to them and show the world that San Diego thinks more about fair play and hard work than it cares about the politics of rule-making.

LES KAMM

Escondido