Yachting: Americans self-destruct

By Suzanne McFadden

It was shaping up as the big fight of the challenger heavyweights - Prada in the red-and-silver trunks, Young America in the black.

But then the New York pretender for the America's Cup fell over its shoelaces and knocked itself out.

The Young Americans blew it yesterday after 90 minutes in an intense stoush with the Italians.

The crew dropped their gennaker into the sea, and as they scrambled to retrieve it, let the graceful Italian boat Luna Rossa glide to its 17th victory from 18 starts in the Louis Vuitton Cup.

Young America, who have had to pull their second boat out of the shed without a choice, slipped from second on the ladder to fifth with one simple mistake.

Into their place near the top stomped the America True crew with their co-ed one-boat campaign, just clear of Team Dennis Conner.

The points table is a jumble, with some boats missing a race here and there because of too much wind or no wind at all.

But no one can deny the Italians their place at the top of the pile. They held it together when Ed Baird's crew kept snapping at their transom yesterday, and the pressure became too much for the Americans.

It was the most spectacular matchrace of the regatta so far. Baird drove for the left-hand side of the racecourse from the start-line, but it turned out to be a glitch which left Young America as the catch-up boat from then on.

At the first cross, Prada was less than half a boatlength in front, and the pair then dived into a furious tacking duel - Young America tacking 24 times up the first beat.

Over the next three legs, Prada's silver bullet was never more than three boat-lengths ahead. But the fact that they stayed in front was testimony not only to their boat's speed, but also to their crew work, which always threatened to be the weak link in the Italian campaign.

Rounding the bottom mark for the final time, Young America slopped the front of their kite into the water. The crew frantically tried to pull it back in, but it ripped in half, and was eventually cut loose.

It cost the New Yorkers dearly. They lost by 1m 14s and cost them another four points.

Baird did not seem to worried about the error afterwards.

"We're behind some of the teams in our boat-handling skills because we pushed so hard to have our boats built late," he said.

"I'd much rather it happen now and learn from it, than if we'd had an easy sail-off and won today."

A couple of other crews could do with a polish-up in their pre-start work after both Young Australia and Abracadabra incurred penalties for failing to keep clear of their opponents yesterday.

Australian skipper James Spithill was 14s ahead of America True across the start-line, but the true speed of Riley's yellow boat mowed them down, and the Americans won by 2m 10s.

Abracadabra had a switch in their afterguard, John Kolius handing the wheel to tactician Chris Larson, who promptly incurred a penalty for getting in the way of race winners AmericaOne.

Stars & Stripes jumped in front of Spain at the start, but victory was never assured, the Spanish making gains every time they sailed downwind.