SAILING: Gilmour hits out

Moves to block the world No 2 ranked match-racer, Peter Gilmour, from competing for Japan in the America's Cup reached a new level of bitterness yesterday with Gilmour accusing rival New Zealand challengers of "going to enormous lengths to destroy my credibility''.

Peter Blake's Team New Zealand, whose compound is immediately adjacent to the Japanese, are leading the campaign to prevent Gilmour, an Australian who was starting helmsman for the Kookaburra defence which lost the cup in Fremantle in 1987, from switching his present role as coach to "playing coach'' and actively taking part in the racing.

The rules state that non-national crew members have to show at least two years' residency in the country they represent. Then all names had to be submitted by 31 December 1994 and once declared for one country none could switch.

Gilmour had already established residency in Italy and yesterday admitted that he had not withdrawn from that while also, apparently, establishing residency for the Japanese.

Gilmour argues that there have always been foreign crew on challenging boats, that the original terms of the competition were meant to be liberal on nationality, and that others working for rival syndicates were also suspect. Gilmour believes he has a 50-50 chance of winning the hearing.

The opening race of the Defender series between Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes and Bill Koch's all-woman America3 was cancelled yesterday due to bad weather on the California coast.