3:39 AM Wed 1 Apr 2009 GMT
 | | 'In a REAL yacht club this guy is about to slam the door'
.
|
When Judge Herman Cahn ruled that Club Nautica Espanol de Vela (CNEV) was not a real yacht club, and therefore couldn't challenge the America's Cup, he gave us a judge's eye view of 'What is a yacht club'.
According to Scuttlebutt Europe1st April report, the first criterion, apparently, is that a taxi driver knows where it is. They didn't. 'Try asking any cab driver in Valencia where the Club Nautical Espanol de Vela is... I dare you. We tried half a dozen at the airport, without luck.'
The next criterion is that you need more than a sticker on the door:
' It took a dozen of us two hours to find this 'Club'. We walked right by it a few times, not noticing the small vinyl sticker on the side door of one of the compounds.
 | A REAL yacht club must have boats, bars and burgees - .. . |
But it was the next comments that showed up the judge's full definition of a yacht club, for all of those of you who might be wondering...
'There wasn't a soul in the place. No bar. No shop with polo shirts in colours not found in nature with cute little flags on them that they won't sell you unless you show your club membership card and six other forms of identification.
'No snotty doorman insisting that your letter of introduction has to be notarised and needs three signatures instead of two.
 | In a real yacht club this is what they do with your car if you are not a member - .. . |
'No drunken tow truck drivers lurking in the lot prepared to instantly haul away and crush any car without a club burgee sticker ...
'no flocks of teenaged yuppie larva named Biff and Honoria dragging their dinghies about the yard when not stealing and drinking abandoned, half-finished cocktails from the terrace ...
'I Know A Yacht Club When I See One, And This Is No Yacht Club'
With those words Judge Herman Cahn sealed the fate of CNEV( Club Nautica Espanol de Vela) , the 'yacht club' that was formed, apparently, for the sole purpose of ensuring Ernesto Bertarelli's iron grip on the America's Cup. In an unusual but not unprecedented move, Scuttlebutt in their 1st April report claimed that Judge Cahn and a number of New York State Supreme Court justices and their staffs had flown to Valencia this past March to investigate the validity of the club in person.
For more accurate and detailed report of his comments, see today's www.scuttlebutteurope.com
by Nancy Knudsen
Click on thumbnails to enlarge and find more photos:
   |
Sailing
