Challenger seeks to have Swiss yacht club removed as America’s Cup trustee

Challenger wants Swiss club dumped as trustee

The most contentious America’s Cup ever got nastier Monday night when San Francisco’s Golden Gate Yacht Club took legal action to try to remove Swiss yacht club Societe Nautique de Geneve as trustee.

Golden Gate filed a breach of fiduciary duty complaint with the New York State Supreme Court asking that SNG be replaced by a “faithful trustee” while still allowing the Swiss to participate in the 33rd America’s Cup as defender, or to allow SNG as trustee and appoint a neutral party to administer the best-of-three showdown.

GGYC said it filed the complaint in an attempt to get a legitimate venue and fair rules for the racing, set to begin Feb. 8 in massive multihulled boats.

The filing is separate from GGYC’s request that the court reject Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, as the venue for the racing. A hearing on that motion is scheduled for Tuesday before Justice Shirley Kornreich.

The Americans have argued that Ras al-Khaimah is a security threat because of its proximity to Iran. The Swiss say RAK has both the security and infrastructure to host the powerhouse sailing teams and their powerful 90-foot boats.

GGYC, which backs the BMW Oracle Racing sailing team, said SNG, which backs two-time defending champion Alinghi, has shown “reckless and repeated disregard in its stewardship of the America’s Cup.”

“A new trustee would provide equitable terms for both competitors, something SNG has denied GGYC by its orchestration and manipulation of the rules and processes designed to ensure that the defending sailing team, Alinghi, can not lose,” GGYC said in a statement.

GGYC said it is not seeking to change Alinghi’s role as SNG’s sailing team and defender.

The San Francisco club said SNG has:

— Offered the America’s Cup hosting rights in order to extract secret commercial deals

— Repeatedly attempted to seize control of the rules and officiating processes to ensure that Alinghi can not lose.

— Moved to disqualify GGYC’s trimaran despite assurances to the New York Supreme Court that this would not happen.

— Selected Ras al-Khaimah to further its own business interests while exposing GGYC to unnecessary danger.

“Winning the Cup brings not just honor and pride, but responsibilities too,” BMW Oracle Racing skipper and CEO Russell Coutts said in the statement. “The honor may have gone, but the responsibilities remain. The America’s Cup is meant to be hard to win, not impossible to lose.”

GGYC contends the America’s Cup was used as a bargaining chip “to extract enormous commercial benefits through secret and complex side deals” in selecting Valencia, Spain, to host the 2007 America’s Cup and Ras al-Khaimah for February’s racing.

Barry Ostrager, a New York lawyer who represents the Swiss, called GGYC’s complaint “a completely media-driven public relations stunt.”

“There is absolutely nothing in the complaint that either hasn’t been the subject of judicial decisions in the courts of New York or scheduled to be decided by the courts of New York tomorrow,” Ostrager said Monday night. “So it’s a repackaged conglomeration of all of the baseless claims that GGYC has previously made and GGYC is apparently intent on tarnishing the America’s Cup to the point of ruination by litigating things that there’s no basis to litigate.”

Ostrager said he was served a courtesy copy of the complaint Monday night. Once the complaint is served at its Geneva address, SNG will have 20 days to respond.

This is the latest filing in a bitter, two-year court fight between software tycoon Larry Ellison of Oracle Corp. and Swiss biotech tycoon Ernesto Bertarelli.