The finals may have been a mismatch, but the challenger series featured some of the most exciting racing in America's Cup history.
Eleven challengers from seven countries vied for the right to take on New Zealand in only the second series held outside America.
The US boasted five syndicates: Abracadabra, AmericaOne, America
True, Young America and Dennis Conner's Stars and Stripes.
From France came Le Defi, Italy had Prada, Japan provided the Nippon Challenge, Australia plumped for youth with Young Australia, Switzerland brought Fast2000, and from Spain came Desafio Espanol.
Many races were one-sided, but there was plenty of excitement.
Nippon bowman Toshiki Shibata almost died when he was smashed in the face by a spinnaker pole. Skipper Peter Gilmour was not smiling either when the clip attaching the mainsail to the boom broke during a crucial round-robin two race against Prada, effectively stalling the Nippon's "engine."
Overshadowing all accidents, however, was Young America's demise. A rogue wave split the Ed Baird-skippered yacht in two, scuppering the New York Yacht Club's $80 million campaign.
The Swiss Fast2000 proved to be Slow1999, while Dawn Riley showed that oestrogen is a match for testosterone in Cup racing.
The field was whittled down to six: Conner's Stars and Stripes, Prada's Luna Rossa, the Peter Gilmour-helmed Nippon, Dawn Riley-skippered America True, Le Defi's one-boat challenge and the San Francisco-based AmericaOne.
Within half a dozen races, America True and the French were gone, while Nippon were dodgy. Cup legend Dennis Conner bowed out to America True in a shock loss.
Then it was down to Luna Rossa and AmericaOne. It went down to the wire; first blood to Prada, AmericaOne helmsman Paul Cayard levels before Italy wins two on the trot for a 3-1 lead.
Then Prada's "moment of darkness": a belt to a crew member's head courtesy of the boom. Their lead is down to one, then matched and overtaken in the first-to-five series. But Italy evened the score at four-all and took the final race for the right to take on the formidable Kiwis.
