As a result, Bertarelli now finds himself in the rather sad position of hot having made any useful preparations to sail a Deed of Gift match in 90ft catamarans - or whatever (and wherever) Larry Ellison decides.

As things stand, with Ellison's BMW Oracle team calling the shots, Bertarelli may have to sail the DoG match as soon as October this year.

That date is, obviously, not to Bertarelli's liking. So he's now trying to come up with another date by insisting the time spent on court appearances (inspired by Bertarelli's own actions) won't count towards the 10 month notice period as laid out in the Deed of Gift.

Therefore, Bertarelli insists, the earliest the match can be sailed is May 2009. In another little twist, he argues the Ellison challenge specifies a race in the Northern Hemisphere and insists the Deed of Gift permits races in the Northern Hemisphere only between May 1 and November 1.

This means the earliest possible race date is May 1, 2009. But wait a minute, says the Ice cream Salesman: in the Northern Hemisphere the sailing conditions are generally preferable in July compared with May, so he wants the racing in July 2009.

To gauge the Ice Cream Salesman's sense of history, he told US commentator Cory Friedman the Alinghi team would not be ready to race in October 2008 if that turns out to be the date. He went on to say he would forfeit the event if forced to race then.

Ellison's spokesman, Tom Ehman, told Friedman BMW Oracle has the right under the DoG to set the match date. Ehman also said he expects Bertarelli and Alinghi to be ready to race whenever the match is scheduled and does not believe they will forfeit.