Latest Legal Battle Leaves America’s Cup Showdown in Doubt – NYTimes.com

They have been dueling without boats and without salt water in their faces for nearly three years. Instead of the customary helmsmen and bowmen, the combatants in the 33rd America’s Cup have been the lawyers and public-relations specialists pushing the opposing agendas of the team owners Larry Ellison of BMW Oracle Racing and Alinghi’s Ernesto Bertarelli, who said this week that he would forfeit the Cup if he lost his latest court battle.

via www.nytimes.com

This article is depressing on so many levels. Putting aside the disastrous impact it is having on the Americas Cup, the image this creates of sailing is terrible.

The NY Times rarely writes about sailing but most of the few articles in the last year have been about this fiasco. Is there any other sport, that just before its pinnacle event,two of the leaders of the sport would be so embroiled in a vicious court battle that even if the event does take place, it will have no credibility?