In the latest round of claims and counter claims and with just hours to go until Alinghi's latest and final deadline, the Golden Gate Yacht Club, representing BMW Oracle Racing, has offered to withdraw it's lawsuit subject to the acceptance of a number of final points. Issues it claims that have been agreed by three of the five current challengers.

"To get to this point we have made further big compromises. In particular, we have now dropped our call for two-boat testing, which Alinghi had cited as their major concern. We are confident this proposal deals with all outstanding points," Tom Ehman, GGYC's spokesman said.

Within the offer submitted to Alinghi's yacht club Societe Nautique Geneve (SNG) there are ten points that the GGYC claims need to be agreed, many of which are concerned with specific details within the Protocol.

In making the offer to settle, the GGYC has submitted its own deadline to the proposal stating the the offer is valid until Friday 16 Nov 1800 CET. The SNG's deadline of 1700 New York time for Oracle to decide whether it is in or out would appear to give the sides a few hours in which to come to a decision.

A decision that could either see the next America's Cup back on track for 2009, or stalled.

A tense day for all, expect more later


Yachting World - Matthew Sheahan, 16 November 2007