COMMENTARY : At Least, Maybe They Righted the Ship

Michael Fay is right. Racing a catamaran against a monohull is absurd and unfair, as any sailor knows.

But, in the end--if the 4-1 ruling by the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court indeed means the end of Fay’s legal fight for the America’s Cup--lofty ideals of sportsmanship and equal contests missed the point.

The only question is whether the catamaran was legal, and in their deliberations the courts explored murky waters by trying to read the mind of George L. Schuyler, which isn’t easy, since the man has been dead for 100 years.

Schuyler was the last surviving member of the family that donated the Cup to the trusteeship of the New York Yacht Club. The deed of gift he wrote was to govern Cup competition forevermore--or at least until Michael Fay showed up.

At a glance, the deed is brief and straightforward, but it leaves a lot out.

Did Schuyler rule out catamarans, or didn’t he?

Did he say everybody had to sail similar boats, or didn’t he?

New York Supreme Court Judge Carmen Ciparick decided the answer was yes to both questions and gave the Cup to New Zealand. The Appellate Division decided that Ciparick was wrong and gave the Cup back to San Diego.

Who really knows what Schuyler meant? They didn’t need the courts to settle this. They should have bought a Ouija board-- calling George Schuyler-- or called in Shirley MacLaine. Could have saved millions of dollars in legal fees.

Why did Fay mount his renegade challenge in the first place? Easy. He wanted the America’s Cup. He learned at Fremantle in 1987 that it’s awfully tough to win it. This looked like a shortcut.

But San Diego outflanked him with the catamaran. It was a risky course through shark-infested legal waters, and some club members had grave reservations for the sporting implications.

Greed made them do it, personal and civic. A ’92 defense could bring $1 billion to the city and millions to principal groups or individuals. For a while, they thought they’d blown it.

But the Cup will be better for it all. The major players have agreed to tighten up the deed of gift after the ’92 event, in which they will all sail similar types of boats--not heavy, lumbering 12-meters but larger, swifter magnificent boats worthy of the event.

Michael Fay should be pleased. That’s all he said he wanted in the first place.