Well-keeled Prada facing biggest test

By Suzanne McFadden

Italy's big-dollar campaign to win the America's Cup will sit its mid-term exam next week.

Its finals begin in eight months on the Hauraki Gulf.

A year ago, the Prada team reached the final of the Road to the America's Cup and, as their Kiwi tutor Rod Davis puts it, they "got beat up real bad" by Team New Zealand.

Since then they have spent virtually 12 months - the last four in Auckland - cramming on matchracing.

They have looked to Davis, a former New Zealand Cup skipper, to teach them the nuances of one-on-one yachting duels. And Cup veteran Chris Dickson, a hired gun these days, has been invited in a few times to race against Prada helmsman Francesco de Angelis.

"I don't know if we'll win this time," said Davis. "But if we get to race Team New Zealand again I hope we can take a couple of races off them."

Prada, backed by the Italian fashion house of the same name, have already packed up ready to leave for their Northern Hemisphere base in Punta Alta as soon as the Cup dress rehearsal is over.

Their two boats are already in bubble-wrap waiting to be shipped home.
Most of the crew are booked on flights on the night of the final day of racing.

The Prada crew are a little younger than those who raced here last year. It is the last chance for de Angelis to assess the sailors before choosing his sailing lineup for the America's Cup.

Meanwhile, the Kiwi behind the wheel of the America True campaign sailed in the regatta last time - but for a different team.

John Cutler drove the Team Caribbean crew in 1998, but they are now defunct, morphing into Team Dennis Conner.

Cutler jumped ship before it sank to join Dawn Riley's co-ed challenge.

Another New Zealander, Gavin Brady, was to have helmed the team for this regatta, but he quit the campaign a week ago, saying he wanted to concentrate on bettering his No 2 position on the world matchrace rankings.

It's an all-Kiwi brains trust at the back of the True boat - Cutler driving, Olympic sailor Kelvin Harrap navigating and David Barnes, skipper of 1988 KZ1 cup boat, calling tactics.

Riley almost qualifies as a New Zealander - she has lived here on and off for the past 10 years.

America True will stay on in Auckland for another three weeks after the regatta, but it signals the end of their crew training. In the final weeks they will be testing out a new mast, which arrives from San Francisco in a week, and a wardrobe of new sails.

The Road to the America's Cup will also be a final crew test for the True syndicate.

On this visit, Riley has concentrated on blooding new sailors who had never been on an America's Cup yacht before.

"We'll come back here for the Cup with 30 sailors. We're still looking for more and trying them out."

Among the crew introduced through the trial scheme is a former American grid iron professional, Greg Burrell. Another footballer, Mark Strube, has gone back to the United States after breaking his hand.

The skipper of the French syndicate, Bertrand Pace, couldn't sail in last year's regatta after breaking his arm.

Pace, the former world matchracing champion, is now healed and ready to lead le Defi Bouygues Telecom-Transiciel, who changed their name from Yaka after a major sponsorship deal.

The French could be at a disadvantage as the only crew in the series who have not been training on Auckland waters over the Southern Hemisphere summer.

But the young team - 75 per cent of whom had to be aged under 25 in May 1997 - showed a lot of pace in last year's event.

Pace's tactician is international matchracing skipper Thierry Peponnet. Among the crew are round-the-world sailors and Romain Trouble, son of former French Cup skipper Bruno Trouble, who will help run the Cup challenger series for sponsors Louis Vuitton.