By JULIE ASH
Prada's new-look Luna Rossa will come under the microscope today in their first hit-out against fellow countrymen Mascalzone Latino.
Today is officially the first day of the second round of the Louis Vuitton challenger series, but just the outstanding first-round race between the Italian syndicates will be sailed.
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the only one-boat campaign in the America's Cup, Mascalzone Latino have spent the past week making repairs and minor changes to their boat ITA72, while Prada have completely redeveloped ITA74.
"We did some work in different areas," Prada skipper Francesco de Angelis said.
"Obviously it is more visible what has been done to the bow and the hull, but that is not all we did. We did some work to the rig and the sails."
After the termination of their head designer Doug Peterson and a few disappointing performances, Prada obviously decided their boats were in need of a total overhaul.
Their second yacht, ITA80, was sent to the boatyard midway through the first round for modifications. ITA74 was remodelled in less than a week and now, among other changes, sports a knuckle bow.
"I'd like to thank all the people involved in working on it. They did an amazing job in a short period of time," de Angelis said.
He said the second round would be used to assess the changes.
"It is not easy to assess because the other boats have made changes as well, so it is hard to fix your performance in a field that doesn't stay the same."
Mascalzone Latino helmsman Paolo Cian said it was tough coming up against Prada at the best of times, let alone a revamped Prada.
"Off course we are curious to see the difference in their boat now."
In the first flight of the second round tomorrow, OneWorld face Mascalzone Latino, Oracle BMW Racing clash with Prada, Team Dennis Conner meet GBR Challenge and Le Defi Areva face Alinghi.
Only Sweden's Victory Challenge, who have the bye on the first day, have opted to change yachts, switching from SWE63 to SWE73 for the second round.
Team Dennis Conner were the other team who may have opted to change yachts from USA66 to USA77, but decided against it.
USA77 sank off Long Beach and required a new bow.
"We are sticking with USA66 in this round," helmsman Ken Read said. "The weather has been okay but not quite co-operative during this short period off, so we still have a bit of work to do on USA77 to make sure we are 100 per cent comfortable with it."
Larry Ellison's Oracle BMW Racing have made changes to USA76 - Ellison has returned to Auckland to take his place in the afterguard.
GBR Challenge fans will be happy to know financial backer Peter Harrison and his plastic chair will be back.
"We haven't upgraded the chair. The chair is here to stay," GBR skipper Ian Walker said.
Today's weather is for 18-22 knots, with gusts to 26 knots moderating in the afternoon. Tomorrow's forecast is for light five to 10-knot south-westerlies.
nzherald.co.nz/americascup
Racing schedule, results and standings
By JULIE ASH
Prada's new-look Luna Rossa will come under the microscope today in their first hit-out against fellow countrymen Mascalzone Latino.
Today is officially the first day of the second round of the Louis Vuitton challenger series, but just the outstanding first-round race between the Italian syndicates will be sailed.
As
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