Federal marshals seized America's Cup champion Oracle Team USA's prototype boat in San Francisco on Monday, "before it could be shipped out of the country, in response to a lien filed by a fired sailor," according to the AP. Marshals went to the team's base at Pier 80 and "determined that the souped-up, 45-foot catamaran and its various components and wing sail were in three shipping containers the team was preparing to send to Bermuda." Marshals Service spokesperson Frank Conroy said the containers were stickered and locked. In "maritime law terms, the boat was arrested." In a filing on Friday, Oracle attorney David E. Russo said the boat that fired sailor Joe Spooner wants confiscated to satisfy the lien "was sold to a French syndicate in December." However, a photo taken shortly after Team France took possession of that boat "shows it has hull No. 5." The boat sought by Spooner has the hull No. 4. The dispute will return to federal court, where Spooner is seeking at least $725,000 in a "wrongful termination suit" (AP, 3/10). In Auckland, Dana Johannsen reported Team New Zealand Chair Keith Turner admitted the prospect of "axed skipper Dean Barker joining another America's Cup syndicate is worrying," and blamed the media for the dispute "reaching this point." Barker said that he is "not ruling out a shift to another America's Cup syndicate." Turner said, "Dean has some extraordinary experience that we wanted to keep in the team and we do think it's very unfortunate that the media speculation has not helped us to retain him" (NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 3/10).
