By HELEN TUNNAH
When GBR Challenge head Peter Harrison drew a banana from under his 17th man's chair on the back of Wight Lightning, a collective gasp of horror rang around the Viaduct Harbour.
He may have been hungry, but bananas on boats are bad luck and the yachties here for
the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series could not believe their eyes.
It seemed the ebullient Mr Harrison, who made his money in telecommunications and had the good luck to sell just before the bubble burst, did not know of the superstition.
His snack was later blamed for GBR's poor run against the unfancied Italians, Mascalzone Latino - the British only avoiding a humiliating loss when the wind died and the race was abandoned.
A spokesman for the syndicate said yesterday that Mr Harrison's lunchbox would be stripped of bananas for the rest of the racing.
But the Britons are not alone in flouting traditions. Their near neighbours at the Viaduct, the French challengers, have also been dicing with disaster.
No self-respecting sailor will have anything coloured green on a boat, yet Le Defi Areva have painted their boats fluorescent lime and have lime spinnakers - which might explain why they ripped two in the first three days' of racing.
In the last Louis Vuitton Cup, AmericaOne had green paint on their hull and flew green spinnakers - nine of which split.
Old sailors' tales:
* It is unlucky to launch a boat on a Friday;
* Red heads, priests and flat-footed people are bad luck;
* Throwing stones in the sea causes storms;
* Don't look back once your ship has left port;
* Women on a ship make the sea angry but naked women will calm the sea;
* A shark following a ship is bad luck but dolphins are always good luck;
* Never say the word 'drowned' while at sea;
* If the rim of a glass rings, stop it quickly or there will be a shipwreck.
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