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on it, BMWs and Oracle software) are built in pieces across the globe and assembled elsewhere, this position seems outdated at best.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?