Russell Coutts replies to AYRE Challenge CEO, Pedro Perelló
Less than 24 hours after receiving Pedro Perelló's, AYRE Challenge CEO, open letter, Russell Coutts, BMW Oracle CEO, replies with another open letter that provides a number of important points.
According to Coutts, his team is "eager" to join the rest of Challengers and has made "genuinely constructive suggestions and concessions" towards that goal. Nothing new there and this wording, or similar, has been part of various releases or statements form the American team.
What is different this time though, is Coutts' statement they are "willing to consider entering the competition by December 15", the deadline set by Alinghi, even if they consider it "totaly arbitrary".
Not being an official challenger, BMW Oracle has never been present in the meetings between Alinghi and the rest of challengers, has no access to any of the documents that are being drafted there and as a result lacks the ability to judge up to what point the recent modifications meet their concerns.
That's exactly the point where the team from San Francisco makes its explicit demand. Coutts asks AYRE to arrange to have the Defender send BMW Oracle the "current drafts of the protocol, event regulations and competition regulations" by next Monday, 8 December. That will give BMW Oracle one week to study and review the documents, comparing them to their 10-point Plan, in order to determine their "course of action".
If these documents are not provided or if BMW Oracle judges the modifications made insufficient, they will any effort to resolve the dispute and wait for the NY State Court of Appeals to decide. Coutts expects they will prevail in their lawsuit, with the final decision made public "early next year".
Aware of the "stakes involved in preserving the integrity" of the America's Cup, BMW Oracle will not seek a one-on-one race against Alinghi but will work towards a conventional multi-challenger event with "fair rules" in 2010.
The ball is now on AYRE's, and most importantly, Alinghi's court.
Labels: 33rd America's Cup, AYRE, BMW Oracle, Russell Coutts
4 Comments:
The ball is still in BOR court, as they seem to be committed to play sheriff and disrupt the AC. Its time for BOR to grow up, or to get out of the way. Please spare us with the "we are just trying to save the world" argument. Nobody has asked BOR to take on the role of AC sheriff.
master move!!!
If Alinghi really believed that they had altered the protocol so that BOR would be satisfied enough to sign, they would have made an effort to show BOR the proposed protocol. Nobody signs anything without knowing what they are signing, ANYTHING!
Regardless of that, even if the protocol was perfect, BOR would hardly want to back down now when they are so close to being in the AC for the first time, even though it would be a match racing event where the boats are hardly capable of match racing.
Its obviously not a prerequisite to be mature, to challenge for, or defend the cup.
The lack of maturity is quite obvious, however that is on the part of BOR. If one wishes to resolve conflict one has two options: sit at the table and discuss issues (as have done all the registered challengers), or start legal proceedings creating tremendous hardship for everybody (as has done BOR). One has to ask what is BORs real agenda, because it cant be to arrive at a mutually agreeable solution. Seems that BOR wants to bully a "win" that they never got on the water. But, it looks like that attempt will also be unsuccessful just like their sailing. Get that bulldog Tom Lehman out of the BOR team who has been misleading LE since their petyful loss last year.
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