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The 33rd Americas Cup between Alinghi and BMW Oracle is slowly winding
itself up to fever pitch. I say slowly, but the reality is that there
are only around 13 days to go before the start. Never before have things
been left so late. The party is likely to be small and select.

A large question still looms over the whole proceeding. BMW Oracle have
once again gone to court, this time over the legality of the sails used
on Alinghi. If they win, Alinghi will have no time to obtain other sails
and is unlikely to make the start line. As Ernesto Bertarelli said at
the Alinghi press conference last week 'If Larry Ellison wins the Cup in
court I will meet him in New York and buy the champagne'

However, the court date is set for the 28th January and it is not
certain whether there will be a ruling before the match is scheduled to
start, in which case, whoever wins on the water may not be the winner of
the Cup. Not a good situation, but one we will have to live with. But if
if nothing else, we would still get the jaw dropping spectacle of these
two extreme machines slugging it out on the water. I'd rather see the
two boats line up for the start and have a good tussle and find out
later that one was disqualified for technical reasons, than have no
racing at all.

Hopefully it won't come down to this, but then with the twists and turns
of the last two years, nothing would surprise me.

At the end of the day, the men and women who build and sail these yachts
are sailors and racers at heart. They just want to get on the water and
find out what these yachts  are really capable in the heat action. They
are winners. They just want to go out and beat someone. Forget the
lawyers and the politics. The thing that drives these people is simple -
if you can see another sail out there, let's make a race of it.

Keep holding tight for a bumpy ride to the finish!

X5'er

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