America's Cup in troubled waters

Fear of terrorism, Iran and pirates at issue in court battle over holding the cup race in the United Arab Emirates.

Tom HundleyOctober 27, 2009 05:32Updated May 30, 2010 12:11

Alinghi 5 sails along the Italian coast, Aug. 15, 2009, on its way to Ras al-Khaimah, in the United Arab Emirates. The U.A.E. was chosen by Alinghi — the 2007 America's Cup winner — to host the 33rd contest in 2010. U.S. challenger BMW Oracle has filed suit over Alinghi's choice of the site for their February duel. (Stefano Rellandini/Reuters)

[Editor's note: This story was updated late Tuesday after a New York judge ruled out using Ras al-Khaimah as the site for the 2010 America's Cup.]

RAS AL-KHAIMAH, U.A.E. — The America’s Cup, yachting’s Holy Grail, has traveled a long way from the days when Wall Street millionaires summering in Newport, R.I. regarded the 158-year-old Victorian ewer as part of the family silver.

But the announced plan to hold the next defense of the cup in the Persian Gulf — less than 100 miles from the coast of Iran and the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz — struck some yachtsmen as venturing too far into troubled waters.

The event, set for February, was to be hosted by Ras al-Khaimah, a scruffy backwater that is part of the United Arab Emirates. The site was picked by the defending champions, the Alinghi team from Switzerland.

The surprise choice did not please the American challengers, BMW Oracle, headed by software tycoon Larry Ellison. The Americans responded with a lawsuit, claiming that holding the race so close to Iran “presents grave safety concerns for the team members of an American challenger named 'USA' that flies an American flag on a 200-foot mast.”

Arguments were heard Tuesday in a Manhattan courtroom. The America's Cup is still governed by a 19th-century document known as the Deed of Gift and any disputes over the rules must be adjudicated by Supreme Court of the State of New York.

But Justice Shirley Kornreich ruled out using Ras al-Khaimah as a competition site, maintaining that the Deed of Gift stipulated that the Cup could not be contested in the Northern Hemisphere from Nov. 1 to May 1. The decision may be appealed.

Each side had mustered an impressive roster of experts — retired naval officers, ex-CIA types, Ivy League Middle East scholars, oceanographers and security consultants — to press its case.

The American side portrayed the U.A.E. as a place crawling with Iranians, terrorists, suicide bombers and Al Qaeda fanatics. It worried that war might break out at any moment between Iran and Israel, or Iran and the rest of the world.

One expert hired by the American team, former Royal Navy officer Graeme Gibbon Brooks, claimed that holding the race so close to Iran “exposes the America’s Cup match to the risk of becoming a proxy for the conflict between Washington and Tehran.”

The Swiss side pointed out that Tiger Woods plays golf in the U.A.E., Roger Federer plays tennis here and next week a major Formula 1 race will be staged in Abu Dhabi, the U.A.E,’s capital. It notes that U.A.E. is a close ally of the U.S., that thousands of U.S. businesses are located in the country and tens of thousands of Europeans and Americans live and work here. It also notes that Ellison’s company, Oracle, has a large office complex in Dubai, the U.A.E’s other major city.

But even boosters of the U.A.E. were puzzled by the choice of Ras al-Khaimah.