Sailing: Shoot-out for NZ, Netherlands

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

After riding an emotional wave for six hours waiting to hear their Olympic fate, New Zealand's Soling sailors must head back to sea on Thursday for a sudden death sail-off.

The one-off race against the Dutch will decide if Rod Davis, Don Cowie and Alan Smith make the semifinals - for a second time.

The Kiwis are angry with the sail-off - the jury's unusual solution to a tie-break protest from Dutch skipper Roy Heiner.

"It's a bit of a joke," said Smith on Wednesday night. "There was nothing in the sailing instructions about a sail-off. Now we'll just have to go out there and win."

New Zealand were initially told they had made the top four on Tuesday night after a three-way tie with Norway and the Netherlands. The convoluted countback system knocked the Dutch out of the regatta.

But Heiner protested, claiming the system was wrong and they should have got the nod ahead of the Kiwis.

Davis, Cowie and Smith waited six hours for the jury to come to a decision, pottering around the boatyard at Rushcutters Bay and baking in the sun.

The jury said they could see New Zealand's point of view, and that of the Netherlands. If the tie had been between just two teams - and not Norway as well - the decision would have gone Heiner's way.

But the jury decided it was not fair to throw New Zealand out, and so they came to the sail-off solution.

"It's just ludicrous," said the Kiwis' sailing team manager Russell Green. "The Netherlands have exploited an ambiguity in the wording of the sailing instructions. In the end it all came down to politicking."

The Netherlands challenged the process used to solve the tie-break dilemma.

The race committee had to go through four steps before they decided that Norway and New Zealand were the last two semifinalists.

But Heiner contended that once Norway had been determined by step four, the process should have gone back to step one to separate his crew and New Zealand's. The Kiwis argued that the rule doesn't say that.

When the jury went in at 10.30 am, the Dutch challenged some members of the panel and a new jury was brought in.

An hour later, Davis was able to put his case, but the jury twice delayed the announcement of their decision - which came out at 4 pm.

Action in the protest room was as exciting as it got yesterday - all racing was abandoned because of fluky winds.