This Challenge for Cup Ranneth Over--and Over

You thought the NFL’s instant replay was a tedious process, interminably delaying the outcome of games?

Imagine, if you will, a situation in which the Chargers are playing Atlanta in the 1991 Super Bowl (I said imagine), and Atlanta disagrees with a pivotal call late in the game. But it gets no support from the instant replay official.

“In that case,” the Falcons proclaim, “NFL rules state that we do have recourse with the New York State Supreme Court. That’s where we’ll take our case.”

Lo and behold, six months later, the outcome is reversed, and Atlanta is ruled the 1991 Super Bowl champion.

Irate and feeling cheated, the Chargers do not give up.

“That’s poppycock,” they say. “We’ll appeal.”

And so they do. Another six months pass, and this court supports the Chargers. Suddenly, they are Super Bowl champions.

Or are they?

“Balderdash!” the Falcons scream. “We can take it to one more level, and we’re going to do it.”

And so they do. Seven months pass this time, and this court supports the ruling that the Chargers are 1991 Super Bowl champions.

By this time, 19 months after the contest itself, San Diegans are not exactly dancing in the streets and arranging ticker-tape parades. The Chargers are not invited to the White House for dinner. In fact, 23 players from that team have retired.

Understand that nothing has happened in the NFL in the interim. There could be no Super Bowls until that one was decided, so why bother playing the regular season games?

This, of course, is what has been happening--or not happening--in the wonderful world of America’s Cup yacht racing.

The 1988 America’s Cup Challenge--New Zealand’s Mercury Bay Yacht Club vs. the San Diego Yacht Club--finally ended Thursday. It will stand forever as the longest yacht race in history, easily outdistancing (in time) the Whitbread Round the World race. This one went around the Horn, from the waters of the Pacific to the courts of New York.

This whole scenario was a farce from the start, New Zealand’s Michael Fay challenging out of context with the rest of the yachting world. He came in prematurely with a yacht about the size of the flagship of the Kiwi navy. And he also shut out anyone else who might have hoped to be involved, including at least a couple dozen syndicates.

The challenge itself went to the courts, and Fay won because he had adhered to a strict interpretation of the aging Deed of Gift that governs America’s Cup racing.

Stupid him.

You see, that dusty deed could be turned against him. Using that same strict interpretation, Sail America decided to race a cat against the elephant. It soon became apparent that the elephant was a white one.

In September, 1988, the catamaran trounced the Kiwis. No, it was not a fair match. The Stars & Stripes could have stopped for lunch in Rosarito Beach. For all the Kiwis know, it did. New Zealand was never close enough to tell one way or the other.

So Fay took it to court. His case was based on fairness.

It had no chance, though one dimwit judge in New York’s Supreme Court--which seems to be a misnomer--dragged the thing out by inexplicably ruling in Fay’s favor. In the end, Fay had to lose his appeal for the same reason he won his right to challenge.

The law stands on strict interpretation of rules . . . not fairness. If fairness was an issue, any sensible court would take Miami off San Diego State’s football schedule.

Thus, this whole episode should come to be known as Fay’s Folly. He got himself into something he should have had the foresight to realize he could not win.

But while there might be depression in New Zealand, elation is not exactly sweeping through San Diego. People are not dancing in the streets, nor are horns honking, nor are taverns brimming with revelers. Someone will probably have to awaken the mayor.

The public has long since lost its interest in this ongoing fiasco. Let the real thing come here in 1992, and it will be a different story. It will be party time then, because San Diegans jump into the fray with both feet when a Major Event is in their midst.

For now, though, one little group of San Diegans is vitally interested in the fact that the America’s Cup is finally theirs.

That, of course, is the yachting community, the San Diego Yacht Club in particular.

The problem now is keeping the Cup. Other syndicates and other countries have a head start in preparing yachts in the new 75-foot America’s Cup class for the 1992 competition.

Michael Fay may not have beaten the San Diego Yacht Club either on the water or in the courts with his 1988 challenge, but he has been enough of a nuisance to make the 1992 defense a challenge in itself.

Given this episode as an alternative, thank heaven for instant replay.

CHRONOLOGY

A chronology of the events of New Zealand’s challenge for the America’s Cup.

Feb. 4, 1987--Dennis Conner wins America’s Cup from Australia, sailing for the San Diego Yacht Club. Instead of following the New York Yacht Club procedure of immediately announcing terms of the next defense, SDYC becomes involved in conflicts over control of the regatta, site for the event, fund-raising and other financial issues.

July 17, 1987--Mercury Bay Boating Club (MBBC) formally challenges SDYC to a match for the America’s Cup “in the manner set forth in the American’s Cup Deed of Gift.” Michael Fay delivers the challenge by hand to the SDYC. The challenge specifies racing in a 90-foot waterline monohull, to begin in June, 1988.

Aug. 31, 1987--After being told by the SDYC that there would be no response to its challenge, New Zealand asks the New York Supreme Court, arbitrator of Deed of Gift conflicts, to order the SDYC to acknowledge the challenge as valid.

Nov. 25, 1987--Judge Carmen Ciparick rules the MBBC challenge is valid and disallows San Diego’s request to amend the Deed of Gift. The court tells the SDYC that the choices are to sail a match for the Cup in accordance with the challenge and the terms of the Deed, to negotiate other terms by mutual consent or to forfeit the Cup.

Jan. 19, 1988--During a week of talks with MBBC in San Diego, SDYC announces it will defend with a catamaran.

May 5, 1988--Mercury Bay asks the Supreme Court in New York to order SDYC to abandon a multihull defense because it is contrary to the Deed of Gift.

July 25, 1988--Ciparick orders SDYC and MBBC to race first and protest later.

Sept. 7 and 9, 1988--SDYC’s catamaran sweeps the series, 2-0. Establishing early superiority in both races and sailing sporadically thereafter, Stars and Stripes beats New Zealand in a bizarre international encounter.

Nov. 30, 1988--MBBC asks the Court to disqualify SDYC’s 1988 catamaran defender on the grounds that it was not qualified in terms of the Deed of Gift and MBBC’s notice of challenge.

Jan. 9, 1989--Twenty-five international challengers meet in San Diego and reach agreement on a new America’s Cup class design inspired by the big boat challenge and by new-found challenger’s rights revealed by Mercury Bay’s challenge.

March 28, 1989--In the first disqualification in the Cup’s 138-year history, Ciparick rules that the San Diego Yacht Club flouted rules in the two-race sweep last September by sailing a catamaran while the New Zealanders used a traditional monohulled craft.

Sept. 19, 1989--The San Diego Yacht Club’s appeal to the appellate division of the New York Supreme Court reversed Ciparick’s decision by a 4-1 vote. Fay promises to appeal to the next level.

April 26, 1990--The issue is resolved when New York Court of Appeals votes, 5-2, to uphold the decision of Sept. 19. The ruling says “legal” supersedes “fairness” in the eye of the court.

* RELATED STORIES Pages A1, B1