Yachting: Dalton expects to take first place after protest

3:00 pm

Grant Dalton expects to move into first place in the round the world yacht race tonight after the leader was accused of cheating and breaking the rules.

An exhausted Dalton was delighted with his second place in the Volvo Ocean race when he crossed the finish line at Cape Town last week, two hours behind the German yacht illbruck Challenge.

Illbruck faces a protest hearing tonight (NZ time) over claims it illegally used the internet for weather data and modified its stern drive - both against the rules.

Dalton said from his Auckland home today he expected the internet charge to be too hard to prove.

However he said the modification claim appeared clear cut and the protest committee would have no choice but to penalise the Germans.

He said any penalty which did not move illbruck at least one place down the points table would be ludicrous, and that must put his Italian-Finnish yacht Amer Sports One into first place with eight points.

He said the rule was very clear and banned modifications to propulsion gear.

The syndicate is accused of adding a weed cutter to illbruck's underwater strut drive and modifying the drive to reduce drag.

"They have done quite a big modification to it, it is not a little thing.

"I cannot see any way they can win that protest. They will argue the measurer saw it but ignorance is no defence."

Illbruck would have to be at least moved into second place if the protest was upheld otherwise it would make a mockery of the race rules.

"I can see them losing one place and they may lose many," Dalton said.

Each of the nine legs is worth eight points for the winner with the points dropping to one for the eighth yacht.

He said if the first protest (the internet protest) was upheld, which was unlikely, illbruck would get thrown out of the leg.

"Assa Abloy has called them cheats and that is a big call. You would want to be pretty sure you were going to win it before you accused someone of cheating."

Assa claimed illbruck used a site which was not publicly available to other yachts which breached the rules.

Illbruck, skippered by American John Kostecki, covered the 7350 nautical miles from the south coast of England to the southern tip of South Africa in 31 days and five hours - two hours ahead of Dalton's Amer Sports One.

Assa Abloy, skippered by Roy Heiner, reputed to be the fastest of the eight-boat fleet, was fifth, 84 hours behind illbruck.

The second leg, 6550 nautical miles from Cape Town to Sydney, starts on November 11.

- NZPA