the neverending story....

San Francisco's Golden Gate Yacht Club began its last-chance appeal to become the Challenger of Record today and help set the rules for the next America's Cup.

The GGYC met the deadline for filing its brief with the New York State Court of Appeals in Albany. The San Francisco club, which backs Larry Ellison's BMW Oracle Racing, wants the court to overturn a ruling by the New York Supreme Court's Appellate Division that Spain's Club Nautico Espanol de Vela, not GGYC, should be the Challenger of Record for the 33rd America's Cup.

This is the latest step in the legal battle between the GGYC and Societe Nautique de Geneve, which backs two-time defending America's Cup champion Alinghi of Switzerland.

GGYC filed its appellate brief two days after Ellison and Alinghi's boss, Swiss tycoon Ernesto Bertarelli, met in San Francisco in an attempt to get sailing's premier event out of legal gridlock and back on the water in its traditional format.

The Swiss group must file its brief by Nov. 13. - AP