America's Cup rules under way

US software billionaire Larry Ellison last week announced that San Francisco was the only US city with any chance of staging the 34th America's Cup regatta -- dashing the hopes of Californian cities San Diego and Long Beach and Newport, Rhode Island.

While Ellison may still decide to accept one of the multi-million dollar offers from European cities to stage his first Cup defence there, the officials of the City By The Bay are now positive the regatta -- and the associated tourist bonanza -- will be theirs.

They are already planning to convert a number of the South Beach piers, no longer used for shipping in these days of containerisation, into the America’s Cup hub. Plans are being drawn up for team bases, restaurants, bars  and public viewing areas in the now derelict waterfront area.

But, while the yachts may be based in the city’s southern waterfront, the races will be held off the famed northern waterfront – between the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island. This location would allow shore based spectators on both sizes of San Francisco Bay to watch the races.

But one face that won’t be seen in San Francisco is that of former AmCup holder Ernesto Bertarelli. The Swiss billionaire announced last week that his Alinghi sailing team, which lost the Cup to Ellison's BMW ORACLE racing is Valencia in February, would not contest the 34th regatta.

The British challenger, Team Origin, is also likely to drop Argentinean yacht designer Juan Kouyoumdjian and go for an in-house design team. Juan K, as he is known worldwide, made his name designing very fast yachts for the Volvo Around the World race.

As yet there is no definite Australian syndicate lining up alongside those from South Africa, France, Italy, Sweden and Germany who have indicated they will have a crack at the world’s oldest sporting trophy. But at yacht clubs around the country there is serious muttering that suggests an Australian team may somehow get successfully funded.

Ellison’s BMW ORACLE syndicate and the Golden Gate Yacht Club, which now officially holds the America’s Cup, have asked US Sailing and the Royal Ocean Racing Club to work out rules and potential yacht designs for the next regatta. They hope this move will curtail any of the criticism that dogged Bertarelli’s defence.

US Sailing has been tasked with framing the rules for a multihull regatta and ROCA with the rules for monohulls. Russell Coutts, the CEO of BMW Oracle, says it is too soon to rule out either type of yacht for the next regatta.

Potential teams have expressed their preference for either a multihull or monohulled yacht to be no longer than 72 feet, to keep costs down. But both styles of yachts will have engines – much to the disappointment of traditionalists who wanted to see manpower back as the only force aboard. The monohulled yacht will have an engine to cant its swinging keel and the multi-hulled yacht’s engine will do virtually everything but steer. The forces aboard big multihulls are thought to be too great to be handled by muscles alone. But the rule suggestion are for engine types that are as “green” as possible.

The choice of yacht is expected to be announced later this year – along with the regatta site.

Betting on the waterfront favours a regatta for monohulls in San Francisco in July or August in 2013.

Check out AmericasCup.com for more details.