“In exchange for selecting Ras Al Khaimah to host the 33rd America’s Cup, SNG (Société Nautique de Genève) secured the following commitments, among others: the Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (“RAKIA”) agreed to finance a shipyard to be built in Ras Al Khaimah by Décision SA, a Swiss yacht-building firm that has built all five of SNG’s America’s Cup racing yachts and which is owned in part by Ernestor Bertarelli (SUI), who controls SNG’s racing team, Alinghi.”
Does that sound to you like self-dealing?
Well, that’s just part of it.
“RAKIA agreed to finance the building of a campus in Ras Al Khaimah for Ecole Pol(y)technique Fédérale de Lausanne (“EPFL”), a Swiss institution that has served as a scientific advisor and partner to Alinghi since 2003 and has played an important role in the design of Alinghi 5, the catamaran SNG/Alinghi built to defend the 33rd America’s Cup; and RAKIA agreed to provide funding for EPFL’s Center for Neuroprostheses, which is overseen by five chairs, two of which are endowed by the Bertarelli Foundation, a foundation established by the Bertarelli family, including Ernesto Bertarelli, to manage and fund the family’s philanthropic interests.”
All this from a complaint filed in the New York Supreme Court by the mega-mega-law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner of New York, acting for the America’s Cup Challenger of Record, Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) of San Francisco.
With the dull clethunk of a court clerk's rubber stamp, Société Nautique de Genève's trusteeship of the America's Cup has been formally challenged.
Perhaps fatally.
What it isn’t discussed in the complaint, of course, is the highly theoretical, abstract, and fanciful possibility that Ernesto’s cost of construction of his magnificent catamaran, Alinghi 5, was seriously discounted by Décision, a boat builder, in favor of a choice by SNG of RAK as a location for the defense of AC33, where Décision is seriously invested.
But is that possible? Could that happen? We have no idea. It would take legal discovery to discover it.
Perhaps that could happen.
Otherwise, Boies’s complaint hammers one fact after another in a punishing repudiation of SNG’s behavior as a as Trustee of the America’s Cup.
Virtually everything about the AC33 defense is a sham, says the complaint. Effectively, SNG's defense is a slap in the face to the venerable Deed of Gift, the august document that controls America’s Cup.
Articulated in the complaint:
Alinghi’s arbitrary, bizarre and total control of the rules, without exception.
A secret pact agreed with the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) to control the rules, including – amazingly – the emasculation of ISAF in an abrupt and definitive way, decidedly neutering the world’s sailing authority, relative to AC33, authorizing them to do virtually nothing.
Measurement mania, in violation of the Deed of Gift, which favors the picayune measurement of the competing vessel in favor of Alinghi.
Mortal danger – well, not to put too fine a point on it – the risks of the impacts of war – in the waters off Ras Al Khaimah, which are less than 20 miles from Iran. All of which is a very serious consideration for any owner, club member, sponsor, or fan who wishes to bring a private vessel to the RAK location – given that no navigable way exists to get there without reckless exposure to threats from pirates (who are routinely successful) or aggressive Iranian Navy commanders (who don’t hesitate to act).
Self-dealing deals in Valencia – even before AC32, deals were concluded involving Bertarelli real estate, infertility clinics, and Ernesto’s mega-pharmaceutical firm. This is icky.
The failed proposition of Real Federaćion Español de Vela (RFEV), as a potential cup challenger, and its subsequent substitution by the pathetic and inadequate Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV), manifestly not a club.
Total control by Alinghi and SNG over anything and everything, including who can challenge for AC33 and enter, and who cannot, as well as the race committee, competition judges, and every other official, including the class rules themselves, racing rules, and the details of the challenger series, and a lot more – literally and absolutely everything, without exception, under Alinghi's control.
The AC Defender (Alinghi) as a virtual challenger – meaning Alinghi’s ability to compete in the challenger series, even if their performance negatively affects the standings of other competitors.
All of that, and more.
It’s amazing.
Suddenly, everything you ever felt was wrong about AC33 – and more – has been laid before the Courts of New York by Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), in an attempt to bring the Depravity of America’s Cup to an end, in a major way.
Will sanity prevail?
Well, AC33 at Ras Al Khaimah may happen. Then again, it may not.
But the issue of SNG’s breech of responsibility as an America’s Cup trustee will survive RAK.
This issue will not be decided in racing that takes place on the war-infested, headland-sheltered waters off a narrow, barren piece of desert land that points to the heart of Iran.
It will be decided in the Courts of New York.
And this will decide the future of America’s Cup.
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