4.00pm
Whether or not it was the new bow fitted to ITA-74, Italy's Prada Challenge had the edge today in the first race of their Louis Vuitton Cup quarterfinal repechage on the Hauraki Gulf.
The race was decided near the first windward mark, when Italian skipper Francesco de Angelis managed to squeeze
past Sweden's Victory Challenge, after trailing for most of the leg.
Jesper Bank, at the helm of Orm SWE-73, built a slim lead on the right hand side of the race course, taking advantage of a favourable windshift.
Nearing the starboard tack layline for the first weather mark, Bank tacked, and crossed ahead of Luna Rossa, before tacking again to windward of the Italians.
Luna Rossa tacked away underneath Orm, and by the time the Swedish boat tacked again, it had wasted a couple of boatlengths as a right shift allowed Prada to squeeze up to the layline, and lead around the first mark by 8-seconds.
From there, the Italians exploited superior downwind speed to build a 43-second lead at the end of the first lap of the course.
Prada covered well through the minefield of big wind shifts and pressure differentials across the race course and protected its position the rest of the way to earn the first win of the series.
Winds: N-NE 8-10k
Winning margin: 01.31
Prada leads the best-of-seven series 1-0.
nzherald.co.nz/americascup
Racing schedule, results and standings
