Court Fight Ends With America’s Cup in S.D. : Yachting: Ruling means San Diego will be host to the 1992 America’s Cup races, using larger, 75-foot boats.

The America’s Cup will return to San Diego, New York’s highest court ruled Thursday. As a result, the San Diego Yacht Club will play host to the next competition in 1992, with an estimated $1.2 billion flowing into the area’s economy beginning as early as December.

The New York Court of Appeals in Albany put an end to 2 1/2 years of legal battles between the yacht club (SDYC) and New Zealand’s Mercury Bay Boating Club (MBBC) by ruling that the 1988 defense of the Cup by the SDYC in a catamaran was legal. The 5-2 verdict upheld a September, 1989, decision by a New York appellate court.

“The ruling is final, and we accept it,” said Michael Fay, chairman of the New Zealand challenge.

America’s Cup XXVIII will be sailed off Point Loma under a revised set of rules, in a new class of boat much larger than the 12-meter yachts used since World War II. The defender and challenger eliminations are scheduled to begin in January, 1992. The best-of-seven final is scheduled for May.

The ruling sets off a scramble for corporate backing as the 2 dozen or so syndicates that have committed to the next challenge gear up to design and build the new yachts.

“This is a very auspicious occasion,” said Frank Radford, commodore of the SDYC. “We finally can say the legal battle is over. . . . We will pledge to the challengers and defenders that they will have a good event.”

The MBBC had accused the SDYC of violating the “Deed of Gift” in a suit filed with the New York courts, which are responsible for interpreting the deed’s rules for contesting the 139-year-old America’s Cup.

Toby Morpom, commodore of the MBBC, said: “We are disappointed but also relieved it is all over. The Kiwis are not renowned for backing off when they suffer a hiccup to the system. In my opinion, the country at large will be bitterly disappointed if we don’t climb back on our feet and go again.”

Dennis Conner, skipper of Stars & Stripes--the controversial catamaran that defeated New Zealand’s 133-foot monohull, 2 to 0, in September, 1988--was preparing for the Newport Beach-to-Ensenada race and unavailable for comment.

In a statement, he said: “I am pleased that the San Diego Yacht Club and the Stars & Stripes team have been vindicated. As with all of the national and international teams awaiting America’s Cup 1992, I am happy to see the fate of the Cup come out of the courts and go back on the water, where it rightfully belongs.”

The September decision by the appellate division of the New York Supreme Court had overturned a March, 1989, decision by Supreme Court Judge Carmen Ciparick that awarded the Cup to New Zealand. Ciparick said San Diego had sailed to victory unfairly by using a catamaran.

In Thursday’s decision, the Court of Appeals said: “We agree that the Stars and Stripes was an eligible vessel under the terms of the Deed of Gift and that San Diego breached no fiduciary duty in racing a catamaran against Mercury Bay’s challenging yacht. . . .

“Nothing in the deed limits the design of the defending club’s vessel other than the length on waterline limits applicable to all competing vessels, nor are the competing vessels expressly limited to monohulls. . . .

“Moreover, there is no requirement that the defending vessel have the same number of hulls as the challenging vessel, or even that the competing vessels be substantially similar.”

As for New Zealand’s plea for fair play, the court said: “Any question as to sportsmanship and fairness, such as the propriety of races between monohull and multihull vessels, are questions which the trust instrument appropriately leaves to the expertise of persons actively involved in yacht racing; they are not questions suitable for judicial resolution.”

In a statement, New York Atty. Gen. Robert Abrams praised the decision.

“Each competitor here did all it could to win,” he said. “These are issues of sportsmanship, not issues of law, as the Court of Appeals correctly determined.

“This type of controversy should be decided on the high seas and not in the high courts.”

Radford, the SDYC commodore, and Tom Ehman, general manager of the America’s Cup Organizing Committee, appeared at a news conference at the SDYC--complete with cake, Champagne and red, white and blue balloons--a few hours after the decision.

“The world’s longest yacht race is finally over,” Ehman said. “Obviously, this is a day for which we’ve waited too long. . . . With today’s decision, and the earlier appellate court decision, a principle has been upheld. That is, the rules are the rules; if you don’t like them, change them, but don’t invent and apply new rules after the game is over.”

Radford said the SDYC is making plans to bring the Cup back to San Diego sometime next week. It has been in a New York bank vault for more than a year.

The dispute began July 17, 1987, when Fay issued a surprise challenge to Fred Frye, then the SDYC commodore. When the SDYC said that there would be no response, New Zealand took its case to the New York Supreme Court, arbiter of Deed of Gift disagreements, setting the stage for the next 2 1/2 years.

Now, both sides are looking ahead.

“As far as I’m concerned, this is a starting point,” Fay said in a news conference in Auckland. “The goal remains the same, which is to win the America’s Cup.”

One “good thing about the last three years is the publicity--the attention this dispute has brought to this event,” Ehman said. “More people know about the America’s Cup than ever before. That can only be good.”

There are about 10 potential America’s Cup defense syndicates and 14 current challengers--including Fay--from a record 11 nations.

Seven other potential challengers have said they are considering making the $25,000 challenge deposit by the May 26 deadline. A challenger’s meeting is scheduled for May 30-June 1 in San Diego.

A new Challenger of Record must be selected because the Royal Perth Yacht Club, which defeated Conner for the Cup in Newport, R.I., in 1983 and lost it back to him off Perth, Australia, in 1987, has resigned.

The ACOC’s defense subcommittee hasn’t yet mapped out plans.

“I would assume it would be a similar time frame,” said Peter Isler, who will compete for the right to skipper the defense.

Ehman said he expected challengers to begin arriving in San Diego with their new, 75-foot yachts later this year, probably about Christmas. The International America’s Cup Class World Championship--Ehman called it a “dress rehearsal,” with challengers and defenders racing together--is scheduled for May, 1991.

The new class of boat was established at a meeting of representatives of more than 20 yachting syndicates--both potential defenders and challengers--in January, 1989, in San Diego. The hope was that it would prevent maverick challenges such as Fay’s. The ACOC said there are also other mechanisms in place to prevent further controversial challenges or legal actions.

Challenger and defender selection trials are to begin in January, 1992, followed by the best-of-seven finals in May.

“That’s why the economic impact in the community will be important,” Ehman said. “It’s not a weekend Super Bowl. It’s a 1 1/2-year event.”

There is one more thing on Ehman’s mind.

“We not only want to run a world-class event, we want to win the event,” he said.

Potential defenders will be scrambling to catch up to the challengers. Representatives from three countries--Japan, Italy and France--have boats in the water. Isler and Larry Klein, helmsman of Triumph America, a potential defender, both said U.S. syndicates are behind because of the litigation.

SAILING OUTLOOK--The decision raised questions about planning for the 1992 event. B1

DAVE DISTEL--It was a long way to the finish line. C1