Alinghi America's Cup skipper Russell Coutts criticised a Team New Zealand defector, before he too swapped camps.
Coutts has himself been heavily criticised by sports fans and some media for jumping ships from Team New Zealand to Swiss Syndicate Alinghi.
TVNZ reported that emails, dating back to January 1997, began circulating last
night showing Coutts lambasting former Team New Zealand trimmer Ross Halcrow for leaving the syndicate.
"A business decision on your part? That's not the way I do business, or treat my friends that have been loyal to me," TVNZ reports Coutts saying in the correspondence.
Coutts also said he took the decision very personally, and his relationship with Halcrow would never be the same again.
Halcrow was a member of the victorious Team New Zealand syndicate in 1995, but left two years later to join the Young America team.
He was said to have been devastated by the emails at the time and almost gave up his yachting career.
The Swiss-based Alinghi team's response to the emails is that they were sent six years ago.
"Have you said things six years ago you wouldn't say today?" spokesman Bernard Schopfer said.
Sailing members of the team, which will challenge Team New Zealand for the America's Cup next month, are now having a five day break after their victory in the challengers' series.
- NZPA
