America’s Cup venue spat sails into court

SAN DIEGO — Nobody can say this America’s Cup is boring.

What used to be an insulated sport for fabulously wealthy men named Lipton and Vanderbilt has morphed into something out of a James Bond movie or a Tom Clancy novel, all wrapped up in two of the fastest, most-extreme boats ever to cut through – or in this case, literally fly above – the sea spray.

When two-time defending champion Alinghi of landlocked Switzerland picked little-known Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, to host its nautical grudge match beginning Feb. 8 against an American crew led by Silicon Valley maverick Larry Ellison of Oracle Corp., it did more than make people click on Google Maps.

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