Another farcical month in the saga of the 33rd America’s Cup, I took myself off to Australia to see what Cup sailors do in their spare time. Ben Ainslie was in Melbourne for the Finn World Championships, as he makes his bid for a third Olympic Gold medal this summer in China. It’s better than sitting on the sidelines, waiting for the bickering billionaires to sort themselves out.

What is a keel yacht? Can it be a multihull, or is it indisputably a yacht with a keel? Such is the latest time-wasting debate which has been stretching the minds of some of the greatest sailors, designers and legal experts.

Having fired its previous lawyers, Alinghi has since appointed some new lawyers to pick holes in the Golden Gate Yacht Club’s challenge. So it was back to the New York Supreme Court on 14 January for Justice Cahn, who has an uncanny knack of making pronouncements that appear to please both sides in equal measure.
Counsel for Société Nautique de Genève, Lucien Masmejan, commented on the New York proceedings: "We are very pleased with the result of today's court hearing. Justice Cahn has acknowledged that our arguments with regard to the invalidity of the GGYC certificate need to be examined in full and have substance. We believe that the further proceedings contemplated by Justice Cahn will bring clarity to the validity of the GGYC challenge."

GGYC Tom Ehman was equally delighted. "We were very pleased with today. Justice Cahn clearly has a thorough understanding of the issues. We are confident the Court's decision of November 27 will be enforced in the order, leading to a Deed of Gift regatta in October, 2008."

Perhaps the two sides should meet in court more often. It's the only time they seem able to agree on anything. They certainly can't agree on the definition of a ‘keel yacht', the rather arcane term used in the Notice of Challenge lodged in July by the GGYC.

Alinghi's principal designer Rolf Vrolijk appears in little doubt of the term. "Being a designer and along with everyone involved in this industry, there is a common understanding of what a keel yacht is. As a design team ourselves, we have not given a public interpretation of what we think it is, we asked experts about it as it is better to get outside advice, assistance and expertise and from the feedback we have had, their findings confirm what we believe a keel yacht to be. A keel yacht for us is a vessel that relies on stability through a keel and a multihull relies on stability through the hull form and the beam of the boat, so it is a completely different type of boat."

That said, the fact that Alinghi now has two Extreme 40 catamarans at its disposal, which members of the sailing team have been racing against each other, suggests the Swiss aren't entirely confident that Justice Cahn will agree with their definition of a keel yacht. It's still too early to rule out the possibility of the 33rd America's Cup becoming a multihull contest.

Talk of a race in giant multihulls would mean a big pay day for the French offshore cat community, who will be able to name their price to the two rival Cup teams, but sees many professional ‘keel yacht' sailors scrabbling around for alternative work now that challenger teams are putting their campaigns on ice.

One sailor who still has plenty to do in 2008 is Ben Ainslie, the skipper of British challenge Team Origin. He at least can now focus on the upcoming Olympic Games in China this August, where he is hot favourite to win a third Olympic Gold medal. "For me personally, it was going to be very tight this year," says Ben. "At Team Origin, we were looking at launching a boat in June, and making a final call on a second boat in late July, so it was going to be a busy year for me.

"The plan was to start in the Cup boats at the end of February, keep on training with the team through the summer, and then spend six weeks in the Finn, building up to the Olympic Games. So for me, it [the hiatus] has taken a lot of pressure off, to some extent. For the purely selfish goal of the Olympics it makes it easier, but like everyone else I'm still disappointed.

"It's hard to contemplate how it got to this situation. When it started six or eight months ago, people thought this would be the worst case scenario and there would some way out of it, but so far not. Boat builders, designers, sailors are just waiting around hoping that something will happen soon. It's a frustrating time."