Alinghi offers Australia as America’s Cup venue
America's Cup holder Alinghi of Switzerland on Thursday offered a compromise venue for the prestigious yacht race, saying it wanted an end to legal wrangling.
It proposed racing rival BMW Oracle off the east coast of Australia next February.
Alinghi’s sponsoring club. the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), said that it would name the exact venue “promptly”, if Oracle accepted the offer.
But the challenger responded a few hours later by saying it could not agree without knowing the exact site, “in order to check whether it is possible to prepare in such a short time”.
A spokesman for Alinghi told the AFP news agency that the site had not yet been chosen. Sydney and Brisbane are among the possibilities.
Alinghi originally chose Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates but this was rejected by a New York Supreme Court judge on October 27 because it is in the northern hemisphere. The Cup’s rules state racing cannot take place in the north between November 1 and May 1.
Alinghi’s proposal came ahead of a hearing scheduled for Friday where the judge is to hear the latest arguments from the two sides.
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