Sailing: Reeves implicates Britain as corruption storm brews

As high winds ensured a second day's delay to the start of the best-of-seven repêchage stage of the quarter finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup here, the action turned to a long-standing fight ashore, with Britain being dragged into allegations of improper conduct.

Another attempt to throw the Seattle-based OneWorld Challenge out of the event has been launched jointly by their quarter-final round-robin opponents, Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes and Prada of Italy.

But, in a 92-page deficition made by Sean Reeves, which includes a refusal by him formally to give evidence, David Barnes, General Manager of GBR Challenge, is accused of saying that, if Reeves would provide "debriefing" about OneWorld Challenge, Barnes indicated "we would make it worth your while''. Reeves also says that Barnes made "incessant" "sales pitch" calls about why OneWorld Challenge should employ him.

Reeves, a New Zealand lawyer, had been rules adviser to Team New Zealand before helping Craig McCaw set up the OneWorld Challenge. He then left OneWorld Challenge amid allegations of him having tried to sell OneWorld Challenge and Team New Zealand design documents to other syndicates, and a California court imposing an injunction on him.

Stars And Stripes and Prada will ask five-man arbitration panel to consider whether to re-open the case against OneWorld.

The syndicate has already admitted some breaches and the panel, headed by QC Michael Foster, imposed a one race-win penalty after the opening pair of the round robin.

The panel will need to be convinced that the allegations are new and serious enough to re-open the case. The case may hinge on whether Reeves, the man at the centre of all the allegations, will be willing to testify.