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Team New Zealand yachting chief Grant Dalton has called for Alinghi and Oracle to negotiate a settlement to the seemingly endless America's Cup courtroom dramas.
And while Dalton says Emirates Team New Zealand are contractually comfortable until 2011 - the date which a newly powerful Alinghi seems likely to settle on for the next regatta - that doesn't mean he will not review expenditure and consider more cost-cutting measures if necessary.
The shock reversal of the original court decision, which allowed US syndicate BMW Oracle to set up a head-to-head regatta with Alinghi in huge, 90-foot trimarans, has caught many in the America's Cup by surprise, including Dalton.
It also raises a large question mark over the twin court actions, making claims which could add up to as much as $100m, taken by Team NZ against Alinghi in the US.
Alinghi's successful appeal against Oracle means that the Cup has, in theory, reverted to the protocol announced after Alinghi successfully defended the Cup against Team NZ in the final of the last regatta, in Valencia, in 2007.
That protocol - calling for a new class of America's Cup yacht - was almost universally regarded as a self-serving action by Alinghi and led to Oracle's court challenge.
Oracle won that challenge, leading to the head-to-head duel either in March 2009 or later next year, with the date still to be settled.
But after last week's shock reversal of the original court action, many Cup observers are resigned to the saga continuing in the courts, denying the event from taking place on the water.
Most consider an appeal by Oracle to be a certainty, as the latest court decision finding in favour of Alinghi was couched mostly around language interpretations of the original America's Cup Deed of Gift.
Oracle have maintained a clever legal and public relations strategy, based on forcing Alinghi into the head-to-head challenge - then subsequently returning to a multi-challenger event, as occurred in Valencia.
Some cynics have questioned Oracle's motivation - saying their real goal is simply to win the Cup instead of the more noble motivations the Americans have quoted about returning the event to a multi-challenger regatta.
But the surprise overturning of the original court decision caught everyone off balance and brings the Cup back to a multi-challenger event, with new 90-foot monohull yachts.
However, if Oracle appeal - and most knowledgeable judges assess their chances of a successful appeal as good - the Cup could once again be landlocked in court.
Instead, Dalton says, it would be better to get Oracle and Alinghi around a bargaining table and negotiate a settlement.
"It's the thing to do," he said. "The stakes are getting higher now because, if Oracle appeal, it will be to the highest court. That means that the next decision would be final.
"Really, right now is the best opportunity there has been for four or five months to get together and settle this," he said. "I'd like it to happen but will it? I'm not so sure as the stakes are getting very high now.
"Potentially Oracle can appeal and turn this thing back in their favour but they haven't said they are going to appeal yet and Alinghi's language does not suggest they will compromise.
"Our game hasn't changed. We have to survive through this uncertain period. Team NZ's position is still to try and maintain ourselves as a viable challenger."
Dalton said there was a misconception that Alinghi's successful appeal meant the event was getting back on the water but said that just wasn't right. There was still a facility for the event to be tied up in court pending a final appeal and syndicates had to face the challenge of staying alive.
"We [Team NZ] can't stay forever [in this position]," he said, "but we have to wait and see what Oracle's next move is and then we will re-assess."
He said Team NZ was contractually supported until 2011 but did not rule out having to review expenditure. Team NZ made several people redundant in recent cost-cutting moves brought on by the court activity.
"We have everyone committed but we still have to stop leaks in the sandbags - the America's Cup is going through all this in a major economic world downturn."
Ironically, world downturn or not, Alinghi have been building their trimaran, spending millions on a boat that might never see the light of day in America's Cup regatta terms.
Also uncertain at present is the fate of the court action taken against Alinghi by Team NZ when the Swiss syndicate failed to provide, as promised, a Cup regatta in 2009. The action includes a breach of contract suit.
However, if the event does return to the old protocol, that means Team NZ would be automatically offside and could, in theory, be excluded from the next regatta.
That's because a requirement in Alinghi's original protocol was that no one should take matters to court and could be excluded if they did so.
However, Dalton said that did not take Oracle's appeal into account, nor did it take into account possible negotiations and settlements.
Asked if he would continue with the court action, Dalton said: "We just want to see what happens in the next few weeks. We will review matters when the next moves are made."
