Dana Johannsen: Cooler heads notable by absence

Dana Johannsen

Inevitable as it was, yesterday's announcement that the 33rd America's Cup will be a one-on-one showdown between Alinghi and Oracle is extremely disappointing.

The two warring syndicates had the opportunity to restore normality to the Cup by mutually agreeing upon a set of rules for a traditional multi-challenger regatta.

But the bickering continued and, with no resolution reached, Alinghi and Oracle are now headed for an extremely rare Deed of Gift challenge.

One would have hoped cooler heads would prevail, but that would necessitate cooler heads being involved.

It's hard to imagine either party was genuinely willing to negotiate a conventional multi-challenger regatta when they have both spent millions of dollars designing and building state-of-the-art multihulls in preparation for a Deed of Gift challenge.

Oracle launched their spectacular 90ft trimaran late last year, and are in their third round of testing, while Alinghi are in the construction phase with their multihull.

The fact that these two teams have invested so much in building new boats specifically for this eventuality meant a compromise to avoid such an outcome was extremely unlikely. Once they went down this path there was no turning back.

Which makes all the legal wrangling over the past 10 months seem rather ludicrous.

Alinghi could have saved themselves two further rounds of litigation and pretty much had the Deed of Gift Challenge out of the way by now if they had just accepted Justice Cahn's original ruling in the New York Court.

But while this bitter feud is headed for the water, don't be fooled into thinking the legal arguments are over.

The two warring parties appear destined to wind up back in the courts again after Alinghi announced that they would defend in May 2010 - an apparent contravention of a New York Supreme Court order requiring a match to be sailed on February 8, 2010.

It may appear to amount to further uncertainty for other America's Cup syndicates, but in effect the parameters have narrowed somewhat. The wider challenger group now only need plan on just two venue options.

Should Alinghi win the one-on-one showdown they are likely to dust off the protocols they drew up at previous competitor meetings with the timing and format to remain unchanged.

Oracle have yet to announce the basis of the 34th America's Cup should they prevail in the 33rd match, but are on record as saying it would be 2011.

Team New Zealand and their fellow aspiring challengers need to ride out the next 10-12 months, which in these current dire economic times is no mean feat, but it is still easier than trying to get Alinghi and Oracle to agree on anything.