Yachting: Coutts' entry to arbitration

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Whether Russell Coutts' new America's Cup challenge is legal will have to be decided by an arbitration panel.

But an irritated Coutts claims his old yacht club has taken too long to clear the Swiss Challenge's entry into the 2003 cup regatta - holding up his team's progress.

The Societe Nautique Geneve, the yacht club of Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli, lodged its challenge with the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in August, but its entry still hangs in the balance.

The whole issue revolves around Switzerland's landlocked geography.

The Deed of Gift for the cup says if a challenging yacht club is not based on a coastline, it must at least hold an annual regatta on an arm of the sea.

The Societe Nautique Geneve, one of the oldest yacht clubs in Europe, usually races in the freshwater of Lake Geneva, but it held its first sea regatta in Cannes, France, this year.

But that is where the problem lies. The vice-commodore of the RNZYS, Bill Endean, said the regatta was held after the Swiss lodged their challenge.

So the tender issue has now been referred to an independent arbitration panel, which is still being put together.

"The squadron is simply looking for guidance on this. But we don't understand where Russell Coutts is coming from. The Swiss challenge has agreed to submit the question to the panel," he said.

"We need to get this clarified, because it could impact on the way future challenges are treated."

Coutts, who left Team NZ for the Swiss campaign, accused the squadron of immediately banking Bertarelli's cheque for the $US150,000 entry fee.

But the squadron says the cheque is still sitting at its headquarters. Coutts' comments in Bermuda this week infer that the squadron, the club he twice won the America's Cup with, may be standing in his way.

' Endean said the legality of another entry was also under consideration, but he would not disclose the identity of the challenger.

Herald Online feature: America's Cup