Enough already with wringing our hands over the uncertainty of a "normal" match for the America's Cup.
Alinghi is clear, without being formal, they're talking 2011.
BMW Oracle is clear and formal: 2011.
A catamaran match (or not) is irrelevant to that outcome.
Both sides propose to set races in Valencia in 2011 with multiple challengers in 90-foot monohulls. If there is a catamaran match first, the 2011 match will be AC 34. If not, 2011 becomes AC 33.
One side or the other will be holding the America's Cup come 2011. They're far apart in how they propose to organize the racing, but that will sort as events unfold. Damaged or perhaps not, the game will go on. Remember how the end of the world was declared when the breeze failed to show up for Round Robin One in spring, 2007? And a few months later we were talking about the best racing ever? There are a lot of people who have switched off the ongoing static, but you can't kill this thing. Show those folks a race and they'll come back. It's time now to be locking in sponsors (Louis Vuitton, we know why you left, but we miss you). And maybe, just maybe, both sides could find it in themselves to declare their intentions in a fashion that would dramatically help the process. Loudly declare, to wipe the fuzz off the edges, something that reads real solid-like in a sponsorship proposal.
2011 is three years off, but it avoids competing with the apparently sacrosanct World Cup of football, and with a new class to put on the water, 2011 is not so far away. It's time to get cracking.
Go ahead, pray aloud for common sense to erupt and spare us the quagmires of the interim, but don't waste your time expecting it.
"Gentlemen may cry Peace! Peace! but there is no peace."
BMW Oracle is pushing for a catamaran match in October, 2008 or a compromise that Alinghi has repeatedly rejected.
Alinghi is pushing to get the BMW Oracle challenge ruled invalid by the court.
The order of the day is, Gather ye court briefs while ye may.
I'm so glad, that ain't me. I'm going sailing—Kimball
P.S.
2011: Will my old my apartment be available? It was a good look.
