Hold those giant catamarans just a minute, you bickering billionaires.

The America's Cup appears to be headed away from a rare one-on-one showdown between American and Swiss crews and back to its traditional multichallenger format following a ruling by a New York appeals court today that went against a San Francisco yacht club that backs Silicon Valley maverick Larry Ellison.

In the latest 180-degree turn in a yearlong court fight, the New York Supreme Court's Appellate Division ruled 3-2 that Spain's Club Nautico Espanol de Vela should be the Challenger of Record, giving it the right to negotiate terms of the next competition with the current America's Cup holder, Alinghi of Switzerland.

The decision, based on what the court said was "ambiguous" language in the Deed of Gift, the century-old document that governs the America's Cup, reversed a lower-court ruling that made the Golden Gate Yacht Club the Challenger of Record.

Although Golden Gate Yacht Club can file a last-chance appeal to the New York State Court of Appeals in Albany, Tuesday's ruling leads the way for a return to the traditional format in which the winner of a challenger elimination series races the defending champion for the oldest trophy in international sports.

BMW Oracle Racing, backed by the GGYC, and Alinghi have been preparing for an expected one-on-one match in 90-foot multihull boats, the result of a lower-court ruling that GGYC was the Challenger of Record.

GGYC said it will consider the implications of Tuesday's ruling before deciding its next step.

"We are surprised and disappointed by this ruling," spokesman Tom Ehman said in a statement. "We will now be taking legal advice and considering the next step."

Ernesto Bertarelli, the Swiss biotech tycoon who owns Alinghi and is one of its crewmen, said in a statement that he was "delighted" with the ruling. "The court's decision validates our actions and enables us to put the America's Cup back on the water," Bertarelli said.

New York attorney Barry Ostrager, the lead counsel for Societe Nautique de Geneve, the Geneva yacht club that supports Alinghi, called the ruling a "100-percent, total victory for SNG."

"I think the sailing community would be very disappointed if the GGYC further protracted this, but they do have the right to appeal," Ostrager said.

The appeals court said that once CNEV receives a copy of the ruling, it can give the required 10 months written notice of challenge to Alinghi.

"We're very hopeful that this means an end to this long process and that it will allow all of the teams to race the next America's Cup at Valencia," Augustin Zulueta, head of CNEV's racing team, Desafio Espanol, told The Associated Press.

Zulueta would not confirm whether the Spanish syndicate would push to hold the 33rd America's Cup in 2009 as originally planned.

The dispute between Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing began shortly after Alinghi retained the America's Cup with a 5-2 victory over Team New Zealand in Valencia in July 2007.

After Alinghi announced it had chosen CNEV as Challenger of Record, GGYC issued a challenge, then sued, saying the Spanish club was a sham and that the Swiss were trying to tilt the rules for the next regatta in their favor.

Justice Herman Cahn of the New York Supreme Court ruled in November that GGYC was the valid Challenger of Record, an order he let stand in March when he refused to hear new arguments from Alinghi.

Since BMW Oracle Racing and Alinghi couldn't agree on terms for a traditional America's Cup regatta, the one-on-one match was the next option.

Alinghi then took the case to the appeals court.

The appeals court majority looked to the recent history of America's Cup disputes and two grammar books as a way to resolve the conflict.

The case turned on the phrase "having for its annual regatta" in the Deed of Gift. GGYC argued that CNEV's challenge was invalid because the Spanish club issued it when it was not an organized yacht club and had not conducted an annual regatta.

In a case involving SNG's challenge in 2000, an arbitration panel determined the Deed of Gift has no provision requiring the annual regatta to have been held prior to the challenge.

The appeals judges determined that CNEV was organized as a yacht club at the time of its challenge. After citing two grammar books, the appeals court wrote that "having for its annual regatta" can only be interpreted through strained English usage and is subject to conflicting interpretations.

"We therefore hold that the Deed of Gift's annual regatta requirement is ambiguous," the judges wrote.

America's Cup rules specify that legal disputes on the competition be settled in New York state court.

Associated Press writers Samuel Maull in New York and Paul Logothetis in Madrid contributed to this report.