Round-the-world yachtsman Grant Dalton has accused an international jury of inconsistency over a protest ruling.
The jury ruled that German boat illbruck, which won the first leg of the Volvo ocean race to Cape Town, broke the rules by adding a weedcutter to its underwater propeller strut. Illbruck was fined but
did not lose race points.
Dalton, who is in Auckland, said the fine-only penalty was "weird" and that in most cases where a protest was upheld it resulted in a penalty on the course.
"I am very surprised; it doesn't feel quite right," Dalton said.
He had expected to move into first place on the points table, believing the modification was a clear beach of the rules and that illbruck would have to lose points.
Dalton is on seven points after the first leg of the nine-leg race, one point behind illbruck, which finished in Cape Town two hours ahead of Dalton's Amer Sport One.
Dalton said he was surprised at the inconsistency of the jury in only fining illbruck £1000 ($3522).
"I can't remember when anybody has been fined before."
During the protest hearing in Cape Town, Team News Corp told the jury that stopping to clear weeds because it did not have a weedcutter would have cost it 25 to 30 nautical miles. That would have been enough for Dalton, who finished only 16 miles behind illbruck, to win the leg.
"If someone will give me 25 to 30 miles, I would gladly pay £1000," Dalton said. "If they would give me 10 times that I would pay £10,000. It's a cheap win."
He said the race committee's comment that the illegal modifications might have increased drag was %ridiculous. "Why would you have it?"
%Dalton said that four years ago in the last round-the-world race, Toshiba put its motor in reverse to clear weed from the prop, declared it to the race committee and was thrown out of the leg.
However, jury chairman Bryan Willis said illbruck's offence was minor and it would have been unusual for the measurer to have spotted the modification and told the syndicate to put it right.
Dalton said the measurer was not a detective and the boat should have kept to the rules. "To lay it at the feet of the measurer is extremely unfair."
Another protest against illbruck, made by Swedish challengers Assa Abloy, over use of a website, was withdrawn.
- NZPA
