By JULIE ASH
Strong winds are likely to prolong the America's Cup campaigns of Le Defi Areva and GBR Challenge until at least tomorrow.
In the best-of-seven series, Le Defi (France ) and GBR Challenge (Britain) trail Victory Challenge and Team Dennis Conner 3-1 respectively.
Just one more loss each and they
will be eliminated.
Day five of the quarter-finals of the Louis Vuitton series was blown out yesterday and race organisers have predicted strong 17-knot to 23-knot south-westerlies for today and tomorrow, with gusts reaching 30 knots.
For racing to get under way, the wind must average between 7 and 19 knots and not exceed 23 knots during a five-minute period.
The last scheduled day for the quarter-finals is tomorrow, with a reserve day on Wednesday.
If racing is not completed by the end of Wednesday, the leading teams in each pair will advance to the quarter-final repechage.
That means if the French or the British win another race to take their scores to 3-2, and if bad weather intervenes, they will be eliminated, even though they would have had a chance of winning the series.
If the scores are tied, the teams will race once to determine who advances and who is eliminated.
The race committee may schedule two races a day if it feels that is necessary.
It was expected the campaign of the French, down 3-0, would come to an end on Saturday but, after a little fine-tuning of FRA69, the team pulled off a miraculous 34s win over the Swedes to keep themselves in the game.
"We did a good job and had good team work," Le Defi helmsman Philippe Presti said.
"We spent most of the race behind the Swedes, but we always felt we could keep going. We had a little luck and a good right shift."
Le Defi sailing manager Pierre Mas said a culmination of modifications on FRA69 led to a little extra speed downwind. "We are also just starting to see the boat performing as it should upwind, thanks to some of the speed tests we have been doing with FRA79.
"This win is very welcome - the first point that we have been waiting for."
The British beat Team Dennis Conner in their first match, but since then it has been all downhill.
Along with a few changes to GBR70, the British also took a gamble and relegated Andy Beadsworth to make Ian Walker starting helmsman for their last match.
It did not pay off as Team Dennis Conner dominated the pre-start and stormed over the line 14s ahead.
GBR came back down the first run to within 14s, but the Americans never looked like surrendering their lead.
"We're not out of this quarter-final yet," GBR skipper Ian Walker said.
The top-four quarter-finals drew to a close on Saturday when Oracle BMW Racing beat OneWorld for the fourth consecutive time.
The Prada and Alinghi series ended on Friday when Prada, who were down 3-0, decided to concede the series to allow themselves more time to develop their boats and complete further modifications on ITA74.
OneWorld and Prada will now compete in the best-of-seven quarter-final repechage, which starts on Saturday.
OneWorld, on the strength of their round-robin record, will select their opponents.
Alinghi and Oracle now have a three-week break until they square off in the semifinals, which are also the best of seven, starting on December 9.
"Time is our friend and we have a long list of things we wish to achieve," Oracle skipper Chris Dickson said.
nzherald.co.nz/americascup
Racing schedule, results and standings
By JULIE ASH
Strong winds are likely to prolong the America's Cup campaigns of Le Defi Areva and GBR Challenge until at least tomorrow.
In the best-of-seven series, Le Defi (France ) and GBR Challenge (Britain) trail Victory Challenge and Team Dennis Conner 3-1 respectively.
Just one more loss each and they
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