By SUZANNE McFADDEN
Paul Cayard has worn the nickname of "Pinocchio" from his Italian America's Cup friends in the past, but last night it was all a little too hard to take.
When the AmericaOne skipper sailed back into port after losing to Stars & Stripes in their last challenger semifinal race
yesterday, he was greeted by Prada shore crew wearing long paper noses and calling Cayard the little wooden puppet boy who told tall stories.
It was a double-edged gibe. Cayard was dubbed Pinocchio when he sailed for the Italian Il Moro di Venezia challenge in 1992, because his moves around the boat were supposedly "wooden".
But yesterday it appeared the Italians felt Cayard was not telling the truth that he had "learned a lot" from yesterday's loss to Stars & Stripes by 22s - a race cynics believe AmericaOne threw.
The Prada shore crew taped white paper cones to their faces and clapped and jeered as AmericaOne returned from the sea.
Cayard was obviously upset after a day of accusations that his crew had not tried to beat Team Dennis Conner - helping Stars & Stripes closer to a sudden-death showdown with Prada for the last spot in the Louis Vuitton Cup final.
No matter what Cayard chose to do, he felt he would upset his old crewmates on both boats.
He wrote a letter to Prada skipper Francesco de Angelis explaining that he intended to race hard against Stars & Stripes.
"I did some long soul-searching over this. I thought about how many world championships I won with Francesco. How many races we won in '92 with some of the guys on Prada now," he said.
"I thought about everything that happened in '95 with the Stars & Stripes guys. In my career, my best memories are with people on both these boats."
