Sailing: Another protest hearing

SOME lowering of the political temperature in the Whitbread Round The World Race was achieved here yesterday concerning the dispute over the time given to Winston for diverting to the aid of the Italian yacht Brooksfield.

Three Whitbread 60 boats were told their grievance over the 21hr 28min 30sec awarded to Dennis Conner's boat, which lifted her into second place overall in her class, would be given another hearing.

The second batch of protests, lodged on Saturday by Lawrie Smith's Intrum Justitia, Ross Field's Yamaha and Javier de la Gandara's Galicia, are expected to be put to a new jury at the end of the third leg in Auckland in mid-January.

Intrum Justitia's managers had said they would 'seriously consider' withdrawing the yacht, which was the winner of the second leg, if the amount of time given to Winston was not changed.

One member of the five-man jury, Paul Bennett, flew out of Fremantle yesterday. The chairman, Marcel Leeman, returns to Belgium today.

Of the five who decided Winston's time in Fremantle, only Leeman and Bennet are scheduled to continue in Auckland. Galicia and Intrum have suggested that appeals would be better heard by a group other than the one which made the original decision.

A reopening would partly meet that proposal and would also avoid having to reconstitute a new jury in Fremantle. Because the race is British-organised, that would need the approval of the Royal Yachting Association.