BMW Oracle are understood to already be designing a 90-foot catamaran and are expected to lodge an injunction next week to force the increasingly embattled America's Cup into a courtroom showdown.Intriguingly, in a week where Russell Coutts was unveiled as BMW Oracle's chief executive and skipper (as outlined in the Herald on Sunday on June 24), Oracle's strategy of forcing an America's Cup contest in 90-foot multi-hulls seems to have firmed.
Cup sources confirmed that Oracle's next move is expected to be an injunction this week to halt preparations for the 33rd America's Cup. This comes after Alinghi announced last week that the regatta will be held in Valencia in 2009 and criticised Oracle's challenge to replace a Spanish yacht club as Challenger of Record.
Ellison told the New York Times said that he had spoken to Bertarelli and described the conversation as "not a pleasant phone call".
"I said, 'Our intent is not to go to court and we want to negotiate.' And Ernesto said, 'BMW Oracle is not in a very strong negotiating position.'
"I said, 'Ernesto, isn't this only one-sided?' And he said, 'Larry, wouldn't you take this protocol if you had a chance to get it?"
"I said, 'Our intent is not to go to court and we want to negotiate.' And Ernesto said, 'BMW Oracle is not in a very strong negotiating position.'
"I said, 'Ernesto, isn't this only one-sided?' And he said, 'Larry, wouldn't you take this protocol if you had a chance to get it?"
However, what has become apparent from the latest manoeuvres is that, while Alinghi's protocol was unpopular, Oracle's move may be even more so.
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