America's Cup - They've got to be kidding!

via www.telegraph.co.uk

"The America's Cup meeting in Singapore, designed to iron out differences between defender Alinghi and challenger BMW Oracle, has fallen apart despite two days of discussions in the presence of mediators...

...A dispute over Alinghi's adherence to the Deed of Gift requirement, which states competing boats must be built in the country of the yacht clubs they represent, surfaced after it transpired the sails of the Swiss team's giant catamaran Alinghi 5 were made in America." Daily Telegraph

I checked my calendar, hoping that it was April 1st. Nope, it really is January 13th and less than a month until the Deed of Gift Race is supposed to start.

Until now I have been somewhat sympathetic to BMW Oracles' initial position, way back whenever that was, that someone had to take a stand at what could have been a biased competition weighted in favor of Alinghi.

I am sorry but this is just silly. In this day an age when complicated things like boats and cars (or not to put too fine a point on it, BMWs and Oracle software) are built in pieces across the globe and assembled elsewhere, this position seems outdated at best.

This war of legal attrition has gone too far.

I have one question. Was this rule about provenance adhered to in the last AC and does anyone give a toss?

Comments

[bonnie]

OMG!

[spiderman]

I'm pretty sure that in recent America's Cup matches the teams were allowed to buy certain equipment from other countries as long as the boat was assembled in the country of the yacht club of the challenger (or defender). But those Cups were sailed under rules agreed by mutual consent between the defender and the challenger of record. This Cup is being sailed under the original Deed of Gift which does require that the yacht be "constructed" in the country of the club concerned. Of course it all depends on what you mean by "constructed".

[JP]

Oh for heavens sake!!

[Baydog]

Bring back the Twelve Meters!

[Carol Anne]

Perhaps the parsers of the legalese should take a lesson from New Mexico, where the debate over what constitutes "genuine" Native American pottery, jewelry, and other crafts has been going on for decades. Here, the definitions involved are "made" vs. "crafted."

"Made" means created from scratch, so "American Indian Made" means the artist started with the raw materials and created the item.

"Crafted" means some hand work was done in the creation of the product, so "American Indian Crafted" means the item was probably mass produced by near-slave laborers in some Asian country, and a Native American put the finishing touches on it.

I would argue that "constructed" applies to the final assembly of the vessel, the same way that cars can be said to be "built in America" even if the factory that built them is owned by a foreign corporation and components that went into the car were created in other countries. Of course, then you get into the sticky area of a boat that is put together in one country for testing and such, and then disassembled for transport and re-assembled at the location of the race.

Oy veh.

[greg]

This is of no relevance, but thought I would share that I had a couple of drinks and dinner with Capt. JP at the Duke's Head last night. He reminded us that this is your favorite pub in Putney. :)

[Pat]

"American Indian Hand Made", I think.

Hmmm,

Maybe we should sponsor a regatta in New Mexico in which all the boats had to be...
"American Indian Hand Made".

And while we're on the subject, can someone help me understand all the bumper stickers about wanting illegal immigrants to leave the country? If all the uninvited immigrants were to be deported or leave, then how would the Navajo, Cherokees, Apaches, Seminoles, and other Native Americans run the whole country? Who would be left to take all the low-wage jobs?

[bonnie]

And how would all the other countries handle us deportees?

[Bathroom Shower Stalls]

Looks like alot of fun.