SAILING: Mounting pressure on the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) leadership to reconsider its decision to move the Admiral's Cup from Cowes, along with a lack of trust and the possible mass resignation of RORC's professional staff, are just some of the suggestions now being touted as possible reasons behind the unilateral decision by RORC to pull out of its formal agreement to stage the 2003 event at the Royal St George Yacht Club in Dun Laoighaire.

As much as the news that the Admiral's Cup was coming to Ireland in the first place was greeted with incredulity 10 months ago, Wednesday's abandonment of those plans has been treated with similar amazement.

Searching for reasons behind the collapse of the deal, it has emerged that RORC's cancellation bombshell came, according to RORC commodore Peter Rutter, because trust between the Royal sister clubs had broken down.

In looking for explanations for the volte face, it has been suggested by perplexed Royal St George members that the RORC committee bent to the tide of emotion to return to Cowes, the home of world yachting, and that this ultimately resulted in this week's 11th hour decision against Dublin.

Royal St George YC are still coping with the consequences of the decision first indicated last Tuesday, while RORC commodore Rutter says that they would still be coming if there were any way he could have got the RORC race management team to Ireland.

While race management issues were at the centre of RORC's decision to withdraw, Royal St George YC Admiral's Cup organiser Bruce Lyster says they were never an issue because the three-page formal agreement signed by the sister clubs on May 28th enshrines the fact that RORC were leading the on-the-water activities.

In a formal statement issued yesterday, Royal St George YC puts it on record that it is unaware of any criteria upon which the RORC and Royal St George YC had not been able to agree, referring specifically to claims of conflict issued in RORC's withdrawal announcement on Wednesday night.

The statement adds that the club is shocked and upset at the sudden turn of events and restates its experience in the management of major sailing events.

Yet, speaking to The Irish Times from London, Rutter said: "The Irish had been warned on six or seven occasions that there needed to be a fundamental agreement on race management, and although it was agreed with me on the phone and agreed to my face, there would always be a 'but' or a 'however', the next time we sat down."

Royal St George YC claim the two clubs had made significant progress towards staging next July's event, both on and off the water, and the Dun Laoghaire club had also delivered key sponsorships amounting to a €1 million package.

Bord Fáilte had indicated its interest as title sponsors at a price of €660,000, The Irish Times has learned.

The event was to be known as the Admiral's Cup Ireland and the sponsorship was to be announced within the next two weeks.

Last January, in the presence of the Minister of State for the Marine, Frank Fahey, at RORC's London HQ, Rutter unveiled the radical plan to take the event out of Cowes and make it a moveable feast.

It was a flagship event that could take place around the world and its mobility would be showcased in Dublin. Ten months on, the cup is returning to Cowes.

Ironically yesterday, 24 hours after the switch back to Cowes, RORC received its first official entry from the Prince Albert Yacht Club, Australia.

Speculation continued to mount in Dun Laoghaire last night that RORC flag officers who first hatched the plan to move to Dublin came under pressure during the summer from influential members and staff who wanted the jewel in the crown of British yachting to stay in Cowes.

Many believe this, in fact, is the real reason for the pull-out.

It is a suggestion that Rutter strenuously denies.

"No. Absolutely not," he said last night.

The Dublin negotiations, however, he said, were a lesson the club had now learned the hard way.

And if the Irish experience had taught the club anything, it was that RORC would never again make a commitment anywhere until everything was signed, sealed and delivered in every respect.