11.15pm
The America's Cup international jury has decided it can hear a protest from Team Dennis Conner seeking to have rivals OneWorld thrown out of the event.
In the protest filed yesterday, TDC alleged Seattle-based OneWorld broke the fair sailing rule of the Racing Rules of Sailing through numerous breaches of the America's Cup protocol.
The protest supports an application to the cup's arbitration panel, filed by TDC and Prada, which alleged OneWorld used design secrets from other teams.
But the international jury said its decision in Auckland tonight would not have any bearing on that application.
What it did decide was that TDC's protest was valid and that it had jurisdiction to hear the complaint.
Officials said that because many potential witnesses were involved in OneWorld's sailing team, now competing in the quarterfinal repechage in a best-of-seven contest with TDC, the jury had decided it would not hear the protest until after the repechage.
The repechage is scheduled to be finished on Sunday.
The jury had not wanted to prejudice OneWorld's performance on the water.
Its next move will be to meet representatives of TDC and OneWorld to work out a schedule for hearing the protest, with TDC to submit a written list of specific charges against OneWorld, along with a list of witnesses they hope to call.
The jury will finalise the timetable and procedure for the hearing tomorrow.
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Jury agrees to hear claims against OneWorld
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