TEAM ORIGIN, the British challengers, might yet be the catalyst for a last-minute compromise over the future of the 33rd America’s Cup. The deadline for a settlement of the long-running dispute between Alinghi, the Swiss-based defenders, and Oracle, the lavishly-funded US syndicate, passed late last week, pitching the future of the 2009 Cup into chaos.

But Sir Keith Mills and Mike Sanderson, who have vowed to bring the America’s Cup back to its spiritual home with Team Origin, believe that there is still hope for a compromise. Team Origin were at the head of a group of challengers, including Team New Zealand, beaten finalists in Valencia earlier this year, who proposed the compromise on the rules and regulations swiftly rejected by Alinghi late on Friday.

“Right now, it’s very sad and frustrating for Team Origin and for all the challengers,” said Sanderson, managing director of Team Origin. “We’re out of ideas at the moment, but we’ve got to regroup. We’ve not given up hope that common sense will prevail.”

The language of the dispute took a marked turn for the worse as both sides claimed the moral high ground in the propaganda war. Russell Coutts, chief executive of BMW Oracle, called Alinghi’s decision “a disgrace” and accused the defenders, the Swiss-based team owned by Ernesto Bertarelli, of deliberately delaying the event.

“What should have been a great chapter in the history of the America’s Cup has instead degenerated into a shambles,” said Coutts. “There is no reason for the regatta to be delayed. Alinghi’s rejection of this is a disgrace and can only be taken to indicate they reached a point probably long ago when they do not want the event to go ahead.”

It is widely believed, though, that the clash has become one of personalities, not technical detail. Though the billionaire Larry Ellison, and Bertarelli have never seen eye to eye, the animosity between Coutts and Bertarelli is more personal.

“It’s not so much the egos of two wealthy men,” said one insider, “it’s the history between Bertarelli and Coutts. That certainly hasn’t helped the issue.”

The pair were skipper and navigator on Alinghi during their successful challenge for the Cup in Auckland in 2003. But the relationship ended in acrimony and in the so-called “Russell Coutts rule”, devised by Bertarelli to stop the New Zealander from participating in the 32nd America’s Cup. As soon as Coutts was recruited by Ellison, a deliberately provocative gesture, the initial disagreement between the two teams deepened into a potential marathon in the New York Supreme Court.

As the four challengers, including Team Origin, have been investing heavily in their teams for the next Cup, America’s Cup Management, who run the event on behalf of Alinghi, have been scaling down their operations. Even with a settlement, staging the event on time seems a logistical impossibility.

The postponement will have serious implications for Team Origin, the first British challenge for America’s Cup honours in 20 years. Founder and owner Mills has more than played his part in trying to broker a truce between the warring parties. In consultation with three other challengers – Team New Zealand, South Africa’s Team Shosholoza and Desafio Espanol, the Challenger of Record – Mills put forward a compromise,

in which Oracle would drop its lawsuit in return for concessions from Alinghi on the rules and regulations for the next event.

But there is no disguising the sense of frustration in the old docks at Portsmouth, where Sanderson has been assembling a formidable 60-strong squad of designers and sailors, headed by Ben Ainslie, the double Olympic gold medallist. Without a firm date, a venue or a schedule, not even Mills can persuade sponsors to ease the burden on his pocket. But the team were anxious to point out that the Cup has been delayed, not cancelled.

“We are a long way down the track,” said Sanderson. “We are doing our first round of tank testing, so we’re pleased and excited by the way it’s been going. It’s costing us millions and millions and the money’s going out of the door. But when we launched the team we weren’t sure whether we would be in Europe or New Zealand so we were prepared for anything. We knew it would be a bumpy road. The America’s Cup is resilient. It will be back.”

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