Follow the court case that might change the America's Cup

First of all, my apologies for the 10-day break in news coverage but as a true European I had to follow the sacrosanct tradition of getting oneself roasted under the strong summer sun on a crowded beach. In my case it was Athens where I also had the opportunity to follow up on one of the America's Cup's rumors, in vain. According to various reports from Italian sources, Alinghi were supposed to be testing their brand new 90-foot yacht in a location about an hour's drive from the Greek capital. The yacht, set to be the gauge for the new America's Cup class, was allegedly being tested on Greek waters, far from indiscreet eyes. Our visit to the "secret" Alinghi camp proved unfruitful and nothing that could indicate the presence of an America's Cup team was to be seen.

Unfortunately for Valencia Sailing, no major scoop took place and it proved to be yet another of these rumors that seem to flourish around the world's oldest sports trophy. Speaking of rumors, the one concerning Dean Barker's move to BMW Oracle was promptly denied by the New Zealander. Barker's intention is to continue with Emirates Team NZ for the 33rd America's Cup. Who knows, maybe Russell Coutts, CEO of BMW Oracle, talked to Barker but finally decided not to hire him because of his apparent lack of experience in helming 90ft by 90ft trimarans.

In any case we are back in business. The sailing season in Europe is now past its peak and as far as the top professional classes are concerned, the TP52's are currently racing in Portugal while the GP42's will stage their final international event there next week at the Trofeu Quebramar-Chrysler.

As far as the America's Cup is concerned, the litigation between the Golden Gate Yacht Club and the Société Nautique de Genève has obviously eclipsed any other development. Yesterday, the saga took another turn after the Judge's decision to expedite the case, meaning Société Nautique de Genève has to speed up their responses to the court.

Following the latest developments of this important legal saga is now even simpler and if you are an America's Cup buff that needs to have updated information you can even subscribe and receive it right into your mailbox.

Similar to any other case at the New York Supreme Court this one has an index, 602446/2007. Using this index you can track the case through the website of the New York State Unified Court System. Just visit this page, type in the index (602446/2007) and click on the "Search" button. In the new page that will appear click on the index and a pop up window will open with the details of the case. There one can observe that the latest change took place on Wednesday, August 22, probably corresponding to the decision in favor of Golden Gate Yacht Club. You can also see that the next hearing will take place at 2pm on the 10th of September.

If you click on the "eTrack" button you can subscribe and receive reminders about future events as well as all the latest developments. In order to do that you need an eTrack account that you can very easily create through the same website. Registration takes less than a minute.

To the best of our knowledge, this system does NOT provide electronic copies of court documents or decisions. The same website states that not all written documents are scanned and in some courts even a judge's decision is not scanned into electronic form. Nevertheless, it isn't rocket science to assume that Larry Ellison's yacht club will post any document they think will help their case on the GGYC website.

Note: This article serves solely as an information tool. Valencia Sailing makes no claim whatsoever regarding the Plaintiff or Defendant.