S.D. Yacht Club Files Its Appeal of Cup Ruling

The San Diego Yacht Club asked a Manhattan appeals court Wednesday to overturn a judge’s ruling that awarded the America’s Cup to a New Zealand boating club after the competition off San Diego last September.

The West Coast sailors said that the ruling March 28 by state Supreme Court Justice Carmen Ciparick was improper because the judge invented a rule that didn’t exist and illegally ordered the cup forfeited.

The judge said the SDYC had “violated the spirit” of the race by using a catamaran to defend the cup against the Mercury Bay Boating Club’s single-hulled yacht.

The judge called the contest, which the San Diegans won, “a gross mismatch” and ordered the 138-year-old silver cup turned over to the New Zealanders.

Oral arguments before the state Supreme Court’s appellate division have not been scheduled yet. In their filing Wednesday, the San Diegans pointed to Ciparick’s phrase saying the boats should be “somewhat evenly matched.”

They said there was no such provision in the “Deed of Gift,” a document that sets the rules for America’s Cup races. “The court below was wrong,” the San Diego club argued. It called the forfeiture “drastic and unfair” and asked the appeals court to reverse it.