Letter from Vincenzo Onorato

[Source: Mascalzone Latino] With reference to the last meeting held on October 30th in Geneva among the Société Nautique de Geneve, Alinghi and the challengers to the 33 America’s Cup, Mascalzone Latino apologizes for not having attended due to previous commitments and confirms its participation to the next meeting scheduled on November 11th.

It further occurs to me to say that, even if we would have attended last week meeting, we would have not signed the letter with the request to the Golden Gate Yacht Club to withdraw the case before the New York appeal Court. As we have said several times, Mascalzone Latino agrees with Oracle’s goal to organize an event with fair rules in order to give all challengers a chance to win. The most simple solution, in order to put and end to this dispute, is to go back to the 32nd America’s Cup Protocol.

With respect to the class of yacht, it doesn’t make sense to create a new class, while the world is getting through the deepest economic crisis after the one in 1929.

A new class means new immediate investments for research, and at the same time throwing away a class with more than 100 boats already built.

In order to make the Cup face both the external trauma due to the current economic crisis, and the internal trauma due to the Alinghi’s Protocol and the legal dispute, it’s necessary to go back, at least one more time, to the ACV5 which have already guaranteed exciting regatta. This would help increase the teams’ participation in the event with a low budget - why not using the yachts from the last edition of the America’s Cup - and above of all, with a realistic economic sense in the search for sponsors.