Prada boss weighs up new challenge

By HELEN TUNNAH

Prada head Patrizio Bertelli flew to Auckland for two days this week just to get a taste of what his rivals have been getting up to without him.

The Italian billionaire paid a fleeting visit to see the three teams remaining in the America's Cup unveil their boats, anonymously rubbing shoulders with the Auckland public as he craned his neck to see the radical new look of Team New Zealand's yachts.

Apparently he was excited by what he saw, but it's not yet clear if his enthusiasm was stirred sufficiently for him to commit to a third cup campaign.

While Bertelli is thought to be happy with New Zealand's hosting of the regatta - his team became the darlings of the country when they won the Louis Vuitton Cup three years ago - he is unsure about a shift to a new venue.

If the cup moves overseas, it is understood Bertelli will wait to see the timing of the next event, as well as the racing structure and format, before deciding whether he can afford a new challenge.

Prada's crew have stayed in Auckland since the syndicate with a US$95 million ($178 million) budget were knocked out of the challenger series last month.

Bertelli wanted the designers and sailors to continue to develop their two boats, ITA74 and ITA80, for more trials.

Beaten 5-0 by Team New Zealand in the America's Cup match in 2000, Prada were disappointed at their results this series.

As racing began in October it became clear ITA74 was lacking in boat speed, and head designer Doug Peterson had his contract "terminated" almost immediately.

Prada's designers were reticent when asked how Peterson's departure affected their team. However, they did say he held strong opinions and when he left, it freed up the design process to explore concepts.

Early in the campaign, both boats were heavily rebuilt, with ITA74 getting a third bow fitted, while ITA80, the newer boat, was shut away for four weeks of rebuilding.

Significant changes were also made to the boats' appendages.

The designer Claudio Maletto said that while the design changes had been radical and made at great speed, they had, in fact, worked.

"It was very late to change radically the boats, but we discovered - and it was confirmed in the first races of round one - that our boats were a little lacking in speed.

"The results in the end were in favour of this kind of approach, because starting out the performance of the boat was not so good, but in the end we reached the semifinals."

It is unclear why the boats were off the pace, but design colleague Juan Kouyoumdjian says launching their yachts late was a disadvantage.

He said that while rivals such as Alinghi had one boat in the water for a year before racing began, Prada's had sailed for only a short time in the Hauraki Gulf.

"That's not meant to be an excuse, it's a fact."