11.00am
Sacked Alinghi skipper Russell Coutts appears unlikely to helm a Team New Zealand yacht at the next America's Cup after Team NZ boss Grant Dalton described the sacking as "completely irrelevant to us".
Dalton refused to talk about Coutts' sacking by Alinghi today.
"I am aware of it but I have got
no position or comment," Dalton told NZPA, shortly after he was told of the sacking.
He would not comment on whether he would talk with Coutts about a position or if they were interested in him.
"In terms of Team New Zealand we won't get into what has happened to Coutts. It is completely irrelevant to us."
Dalton was asked if he now had any interest in Coutts.
"I am not really going to get into that. I don't want to comment on the whole issue. It is nothing to do with me."
Dalton would not comment on whether he would talk to Coutts in the near future.
However, he said the sacking was not a surprise.
"It's been on the go probably for about a year," Dalton said.
Coutts, who is currently in Portugal, may be stopped from sailing with any syndicate in the next America's Cup by a change in the protocol earlier this month.
Team New Zealand spokesman Warren Douglas said the change appeared to preclude Coutts from sailing with another team.
He said the old protocol stopped anyone from changing syndicates up to 18 months before the start of the regatta if they had been a racing or training crew member.
That may have allowed Coutts to change syndicates because the next America's Cup is scheduled for 2007, well outside the 18-month time limit.
However, the change in the protocol said except with the consent of all competitors, crew members were restricted to work with only one syndicate.
Under the new protocol, if they had worked, paid or unpaid, as racing or training crew members for 180 days or more, they could not work, paid or unpaid by another competitor "in any capacity", Douglas said.
"That is our reading of it but we are no legal experts," Douglas said.
- NZPA
