New Zealand Asked to Hurry With Appeal : America’s Cup Organizing Committee Says Next Defense Might Have to Wait Until 1993

San Diego’s America’s Cup Organizing Committee, convinced that New Zealand is dragging its feet, has asked prospective challengers to urge Michael Fay’s lawyers to proceed with their request for appeals as soon as possible so the next defense won’t be postponed from May 1992 to ’93.

An agreement by the challengers and San Diego precludes starting the next defense sooner than two years after the end of all litigation, which the ACOC says could take until next summer.

Tom Ehman, executive vice president of the ACOC, said in a letter to the 22 challengers from 11 countries: “If New Zealand takes all the time permitted, it could be Christmas before we know whether they will be allowed to appeal . . . (and) another six to 12 months before we have a final decision.”

The San Diego Yacht Club got the Cup back on appeal from the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court Sept. 19. But New Zealand’s Mercury Bay Boating Club has 30 days to seek an appeal from the same five judges that voted, 4-1, to overturn Justice Carmen Ciparick’s March ruling that awarded the Cup to New Zealand because San Diego used a catamaran in last year’s defense. The lawyers have indicated they would wait until the final day, Oct. 18.

Approval of three of the judges is required. Failing that, New Zealand then would have another 30 days to go to the New York Court of Appeals, where two of the seven judges must agree to hear an appeal.