Sailing: NZ protest successfully but don’t benefit

The Olympic yachting jury on Monday night found that the race comittee boat had impeded New Zealand's Star class boat, but the decision didn't do skipper Gavin Brady and crew Jamie Gale any good.

New Zealand won both protests they took to the jury after the fourth Star race of the Sydney Games.

Switzerland were disqualified for not giving way to New Zealand when on port tack rounding a buoy, lifting New Zealand from 10th to ninth place in the race.

But the real damage had already been done by the committee boat, when New Zealand were lying second at the second mark.

``The committee boat was anchored close to the leeward mark and it resulted in our guys having to take evasive action and the whole fleet went through inside them,'' New Zealand team manager Russell Green said.

The New Zealanders were forced to gybe away from the fleet to avoid the committee boat, which Green said should not have been anchored at the time.

But there was no redress for New Zealand. Green said if the jury had restored New Zealand to its position at the time of the obstruction, the rest of the fleet would have protested.

New Zealand were fifth in the other race yesterday and lying ninth overall at the end of the day.