Alinghi sailor Simon Daubney has claimed ill feeling towards him following his decision to leave Team New Zealand in 2000 may have made him the victim of a drinks spiking incident.
It was revealed last week that the high-profile New Zealand yachtie had failed a doping test duringthe last America's Cup, where Alinghi beat Team New Zealand.
While it was thought Daubney's sample revealed traces of cannabis, America's Cup jury documents reveal the substance was cocaine.
Daubney, who appeared before the jury in London last week, failed the test after his sample revealed the presence of two metabolites of cocaine (benzoilecgonine and ecgonine methyl ester) but not cocaine itself.
The jury was satisfied that an anti-doping rule violation had occurred but believed that Daubney was telling the truth when he stated that he had not knowingly taken cocaine or any other banned substance.
Character witnesses for Daubney during last week's hearing included fellow Kiwi sailors Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth.
Alinghi elected not to attend.
Coutts, Butterworth and Daubney were among the six New Zealand sailors branded traitors after they left Team New Zealand in 2000 and signed with Alinghi, the Swiss syndicate headed by Ernesto Bertarelli.
In his evidence, Daubney, who is the first sailor in the cup's history to fail a doping test, stated he had been tested for drugs many times during his career.
All of the tests had been negative.
A small, unruly element developed when he moved from Team New Zealand to Alinghi for the 2002-03 cup, he said.
At times he had been subjected to considerable personal harassment.
He said that in the week before the drug test being conducted on June 23, race one of the cup, he had visited one bar in Palma and two in Valencia where he had consumed drinks that he had not bought, which could have been tampered with without his knowledge.
He also received a note in the mail a day after his drug test which said, "I heard you were tested, how do you think you will get on? Ha Ha."
Daubney discarded the note, thinking it was a practical joke.
He has resigned from Alinghi until the matter is cleared up.
