Paul Lewis: Sir Michael Fay's strange America's Cup protest comes far too late

Sir Michael Fay. Photo / Photosport

OPINION:

Now there's a strange thing. Nearly five months after it was announced that the America's Cup would be defended in Barcelona, Sir Michael Fay and advisors Andrew Johns and Alan Sefton have announced they are resigning from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

It's in protest at the RNZYS's "regretful approach to its obligations as Trustee of the America's Cup". In an open letter to the squadron, the trio say that just when New Zealand could reap "considerable rewards" for America's Cup endeavours and achievements, "the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron sells off the rights to hosting the event".

"That, to us, is a slap in the face for everyone and everything that have (sic) gone before," the letter says, adding they believe the squadron has no licence to relocate the venue offshore and the resignations come after "much consideration".

Indeed. Five months is a lot of considering. It makes you wonder what else is afoot. Fay, Johns and Sefton are America's Cup veterans and nobody's fools – and outrage five months down the track, when Alinghi are already sailing their boat in Barcelona, seems a bit of a wasted exercise.

It might be explained by the fact the squadron's annual general meeting is next week and you don't have to be Stephen Hawking to work out there could be two worlds colliding at that event.

But why? The chances of getting the event back from Barcelona seem very Buzz Lightyear ("infinity and beyond"). The challengers are happy, the sponsors are happy and you don't even want to think about the legal action from an attempted grab-back (even if such a thing were possible). There were rumblings of legal challenges when Mark Dunphy's campaign to keep the Cup at home fizzled out – but nothing has eventuated yet. Dunphy is a former director of Fay Richwhite, Fay's company.

The whole focus, as Dunphy's campaign originally was before the mud was slung, is on the squadron as the trustee and supposed decision maker when it comes to a venue.

Michael Fay during an America's Cup press conference ahead of the 1987 challenge in Fremantle. Photo / Photosport

Fay, Johns and Sefton were involved in three America's Cup campaigns, none successful in winning the Cup but certainly setting alight a Kiwi fuse that has burned ever since. Sefton later became a key man in the formation of the original Team NZ. Perhaps the most notorious of the three Fay challenges was the 1988 Big Boat Challenge where Johns, a legal advisor, discovered the loophole in the Cup's Deed Of Gift (its guiding document) allowing the Kiwis to challenge with a 90-ft monohull.

After lengthy courtroom and other palaver, the Americans pulled a swifty, using their own legal interpretation of the Deed; Dennis Conner fielded a catamaran which, faster and more nimble, won the Cup untroubled.

So it felt a bit rich for the letter to say the Fay challenges "earned an international reputation for fairness in their adherence to the requirements of the Deed…". Funny, I seem to recall other challengers being monumentally chunked off when the Americans, upset at the Kiwis, refused to allow a challenger series, turning the 1988 event into a one-on-one.

While the squadron AGM might be interesting, it will be far more so to see what might transpire afterwards, if anything, or whether this is simply, as they say, a matter of principle. Some felt Fay's 1988 Big Boat challenge ended up like the guy who takes a knife to a gun fight. If the trio are resigning now, this time it's more like they arrived five months late to the fight.