The way Connor described it was that in meeting with Fay, right after the first court batttle (there were three), Fay announced the beam and water line length of the new monster yacht. Because of the yachts design with the large flair out the beam was astronomical in relation to the other dimensions. Conner was concerned that the only way that was possible was because NZ was building a cat. Keep in mind the design of NZ1 was futuristic if you will for the time. I will be the first to conceed that Conner did his fair share to screw things up by trying to use the DOG to his advantage. Fay tried to fight fire with fire by doing the same thing. Two wrongs don't make a right and the whole 88 cup became a fiasco, with the cup changing hands twice in a court room. My original point is that both Fay and Conner lost sight of the spirit of the DOG and made a mochary of the whole thing. [/quote]

The whole thing about this challenge was the realization that within the DOG was the 90 day rule - somebody issues a challenge and you must respond in 90 days. So Fay showing up with a monster boat saying let's race was a sure bet because nobody could respond to that kind of challenge in 90 days. Connor going to court was a necessity to have any kind of race/chance, for simply no other reason than to buy time. The big screw up on Connors part was not quickly nailing down the specifics after the previous cup as was usually done to avoid this kind of thing. So going to court up front was the only real way to avoid simply handing the Cup over IMO. I don't believe that Fay ever desired a fair race or a race at all - the whole thing was designed to simply move the Cup. During the AC when the Cup was won back from AUS - after NZ was eliminated in the challenger series they threw their support and knowledge behind AUS, the defender. Tradition had been for the challengers to offer that aid to the challenger that ultimately won. When asked about this the answer was that it in their best interest because it would be easier to compete and get the Cup in AUS than in US. Logical, not traditional, and the intent was shown even then that the goal was get the Cup in any way.

The fun thing about that whole court battle was the alternating support of "tradition" and "Deed of Gift". Keep in mind that at that point tradition was to agree to time, have the challengers run off, then have the big match race. Fay's challenge was strictly Deed Of Gift - I've got a boat you must race me in 90 days.

That Connor's team looked at the Deed and saw that a cat was possible I think was a stroke of genius - certainly as outside the box as Fay's boat given the usual institutional dislike for multis, especially at the time (there is FAR more acceptance of multis now). In the end it was fight an outside of the box challenge with an outside of the box defense. Although we always talk about how it should be performance on the course that determines the winner, the reality to this kind of racing and just about any kind of racing IMO is the engineering side, how to get the edge, and if possible how to get the "unfair advantage". This even happens in OD - if manifests itself in obsessive boat prep, but it's being done to either secure an advantage or at least keep up with those that are perceived to have the advantage. In this case, both teams were engaged in the engineering for the unfair advantage to the extreme - there is no doubt that was Fay's intent, and there is no doubt it was Connor's intent in his response.

Of course, once the cat option came up and Fay was locked into his challenging design, he became all about tradition (the very thing he had been bucking all along) in the court battles. And he went to court just as hard as Connor did. Again, it was fun to watch both sides flip between tradition and DOG.

With the court case still pending, and the potential outcome coming down to the definition of the word "match" in match racing (Fay's court gambit) - the race in my mind probably didn't show anywhere near the potential of either boat. Fay's only hope was that it would be such a drubbing that the court would throw it all out and award him the Cup. Connor's hope was that he beat Fay but not by so much that the same thing would happen.

So, depending on who's side you identify with, either party in this could be the villain or the hero. There was as much (maybe more) match racing in court as there was on the water. I think both camps played both hero and villain, but for me this one of the most interesting cups, if for nothing else that two very different approaches to race boats were up front in everybody's face. Certainly the 12 meters were past their day, and the new designs for the AC boats were absolutely sped up by this little skirmish.

That court battle was about the boats, the deed, tradition. The current court battle just seems a pissing match, and few people seem to think that Bertarelli has acted in the best interest of the competition. But I'm happy it will end up in multis, at least this time. I hope they spend some attention on the boat handling aspect of things, I've always wondered what it could mean to cats were thrown into an arena that put more emphasis on the maneuverability - could be something there we can all benefit from.

Anyway, that's my take... But I'm also the person who actually enjoyed watching Penske's "stock blocks" walk away from everybody at the Indy 500...