Sailing: OneWorld accused of copying boat designs

Prada and Team Dennis Conner have called upon the America's Cup arbitration panel, which oversees protocol and rules, to disqualify their rival, OneWorld, for using other teams' boat design secrets.

Quarter-finalists in the Louis Vuitton Cup for America's Cup challengers, the pair have accused the Seattle-based OneWorld team of "multiple contraventions" of Cup rules which state that each team must have its own, independent boat design team.

Conner and the Italian outfit Prada have lodged an application asking an independent arbitration panel for a "full and timely" investigation of OneWorld's Cup bid after they received new information about OneWorld's boat design work.

OneWorld, backed by the telecoms investor Craig McCaw and the Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, have denied any wrongdoing and said they had already been penalised for inadvertent breaches of the rules before the Louis Vuitton Cup challengers series began here in New Zealand last month.

Team Dennis Conner are drawn to sail OneWorld in a best-of-seven challengers quarter-final elimination repêchage. Prada are to sail Sweden's Victory Challenge for a place in the semi-finals against either Alinghi of Switzerland or another US team, Oracle BMW Racing.

The weather has so far prevented even a single race in the LVC quarter-final series being sailed. Yesterday was the third day of cancellations and the 14th in the Louis Vuitton Cup series since it started on 1 October.