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The complaint centres around changes made to the rules of the America’s Cup for the current 38th cycle of the 175-year-old competition which is scheduled to take place in Naples, Italy in 2027.
According to American John Sweeney – who says he filed the complaint on February 12 – the rules infringed include those relating to the size of the boats used in the regatta and the relaxation of the ban on the use of stored power on the yachts. In particular Sweeney asserts that the foiling monohull AC75 class “cannot comply with the Deed’s load waterline length, beam, and draught requirements”.
The complaint also takes issue with the recent introduction of the America’s Cup Partnership, which Sweeney says: “has replaced yacht-club governance with for-profit corporations that bind all future Cup winners to sail under RNZYS rules forever.”
According to an AI-generated online biography, Sweeney sailed as mainsail trimmer for America True at the 30th America’s Cup in Auckland in 2000, and for BMW Oracle Racing at the 31st edition in 2003. At the 32nd America’s Cup in Valencia, Spain he held the position of sporting director at the South African Shosholoza syndicate after a plan to become Challenger of Record with his own Sausalito Challenge failed to come to fruition.
Sweeney retired from professional sailing in 2007.
In a post on his Facebook page, the American states his intent is to: “make sure the next America’s Cup is held in true Deed-compliant sailing yachts, powered by humans and not by foiling, run in the Nation that won it.”
He has also gone as far as to commission what he describes as “a fully Deed-compliant 90ft waterline monohull class” from veteran British yacht designer Julian Everitt. The non-foiling boats would feature a ‘traditional’ sail plan – i.e. with different upwind and downwind sail configurations – and require a crew of 30 sailors.
Whilst there has been no formal comment about the complaint from any of the America’s Cup teams at this stage, many commentators have suggested that the AC38 Protocol gets round many of the issues Sweeney cites because of the ‘mutual consent clause’ in the America’s Cup Deed of Gift document which allows for changes if all parties are in agreement.
Just how far Sweeney will get with his legal challenge is difficult to assess. Whether his complaint gets any further than it already has will largely depend on whether he is given ‘legal standing’ by the New York Attorney General with regard to the America’s Cup.
If he does – and if the AG decides the complaint is in the public interest – then the lawyers get involved – and from there, well who knows where this could go?
Perhaps more important is whether there is any support out there from potential challengers for an America’s Cup contested in displacement yachts?
Certainly it seems unlikely that any of the current crop of challengers would support such a move – although there would doubtless be plenty of online support from the legions of sailing fans on social media who have been calling for such an event for a long time now.
