Yachting: Cup bid over but True will be racing to win

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Dawn Riley, the first woman of the America's Cup, couldn't hide her bitter disappointment as her team bowed out of challenger contention yesterday.

Her American-Kiwi boy-girl crew can no longer make the finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup after their fifth loss from six yesterday - a shock turnabout for America True, the yellow boat from San Francisco.

Riley, the first woman to head a campaign, admitted it was difficult not to cry.

"We've come so far, we've overcome so many obstacles. We had the tools to do it. So I'm pretty bitterly disappointed.

"It's so hard to think that after five years of giving this 100 per cent every single day, we'll be closing up shop in four days' time."

The night before yesterday's fateful Golden Gate showdown with AmericaOne, the True's shore team and half the sailing crew worked all night to reconfigure the boat, making changes to the keel and rudder.

"We upped the boat's performance in heavier winds," Riley said. "It worked, but it was all negated by a 30 degree windshift right at the start of the race."

Riley felt she had let down the boat's designer, Phil Kaiko.

She admitted the boat had lost speed from the round robins, where it ended up third overall, because they wrongly changed it to suit light airs during the break.

Yesterday morning, the crew gathered for their daily quote of inspiration from team backer Chris Coffin, who came up with a golf analogy: "It's not about getting it close, it's about making the putt."

It was a good metre short of the hole, or at least over a minute behind AmericaOne yesterday.

The other five challengers applauded America True's yellow boat as it was towed through the cup village last evening.

After three cup campaigns, she intends to have another go, saying the Trues would definitely be back if Team New Zealand held the cup. "It makes sense," she said. "All of our stuff's here."

America True may fill the time between cups with a round-the-world campaign in the Volvo Ocean Race. "I don't necessarily want to do it," said Riley, a veteran of two circumnavigations.

The Trues still have four races to go in these semifinals, which have been reduced to two rounds, and won't be packing it in early.

"We still want to go out and win as many as we can," she said. "Then watch who wins what, and where we will go for the next America's Cup."