Yachting: Stars and gripes all round

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

A bitter, drawn-out fight off the water could eventually determine who will race in the America's Cup challenger finals.

Prada last night lodged a protest against Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes syndicate, accusing them of using an illegal mainsail in the Louis Vuitton Cup semifinals.

Conner and the Italians are the two surviving challengers battling it out for the last finals spot, to race against AmericaOne in 11 days' time.

But it could take up to a week for the protest to be sorted out by the international jury, and most probably an arbitration panel, because they are scattered around the globe.

If America True beat Stars & Stripes on the water today, then this will all disappear in a puff of smoke.

But if it comes down to a sudden-death sail-off between Prada and Stars & Stripes tomorrow, then tonight's jury hearing will take on unrivalled importance.

Prada's protest concerns a mainsail that Stars & Stripes have used in these semifinals. The Italians believe the hi-tech sail breaches the rule stopping syndicates sharing technology.

Their argument is that the sail is the "product of the intellectual creativity and judgment of the Young America design programme" - a sail the New York Yacht Club challenge began making, but no longer needed when they bowed out of the regatta.

All but one of the 11 challengers in this regatta (the Hawaiians) had their sails made by North Sails in the United States.

It is the second time in a week that Team Dennis Conner have been accused of breaking the protocol. They have already been found guilty of using a rudder built outside the Cup rules.

But Stars & Stripes operations manager Bill Trenkle was last night adamant that the syndicate had done nothing wrong.

"The sail was not designed by Young America," he said. "These are desperate people taking desperate measures to try to win this off the water."

The Prada challenge's general manager, Laurent Esquier, denied that the protest application was held off until the pressure on Prada to survive in this regatta became overwhelming.

"It is not a political move to do this now. We wanted to avoid a frivolous case. We would not do this if we didn't have legs to stand on," Esquier said.

"I don't know what needs to be done, but I know, in my opinion that they have violated the protocol."

The arbitration panel could be called on to rule if Stars & Stripes broke articles of the protocol, but it could be a drawn-out phone-and-fax affair - the American and Brazilian members of the panel left Auckland this week.

The yachting world will watch today to see if the back-room pressure tells on the Stars & Stripes sailing crew, who must beat America True to go on to the sail-off.

There is pressure of a different kind on Dawn Riley, the Trues skipper, who will not want to be accused of giving up today's race, as AmericaOne skipper Paul Cayard was yesterday.

"All we're worried about is not winning the wooden spoon," she said, after the Trues dropped to last, losing to the damaged French boat yesterday.

Cayard admitted that Stars & Stripes was not the fastest boat in yesterday's clash, although it beat AmericaOne by 22s. "But they sailed a perfect race. They got the first windshift and held on, even if they were the slower boat."