Team Shosholoza accused the race favourites of influencing the organisers over whether they could race or not.

"We are very, very upset because today it was possible to race and we believe the big teams are pushing the race committee not to start a race", team boss Salvatore Sarno said in a statement.

Sarno added that he did not agree with the decision to make seven knot winds unraceable because they were judged to be too light.

"We also don't agree about the 7 knot parameter," he said. "Shosholoza RSA 83 is the kind of boat that performs very well in light winds. There would have been no problem for an exciting race to take place".

"It is the very big teams that are worried about our performance. They are scared of what can happen"