Yachting: Nippon clip-on pain

By Suzanne Mc Fadden

The world's No 1 skipper, Peter Gilmour, wanted to shoulder the blame for Nippon's heart-wrenching breakdown yesterday on the verge of scoring the upset of the America's Cup challenger series.

Gilmour said it was probably his fault that the boat was forced to retire when it was 40s ahead of the unbeaten Italian team Prada. After all, he had urged that the boat, Asura, be built to the extreme limits.

For Prada, it was "fortuna" yet another lucky break.

Where Nippon failed yesterday, America True and the Swiss Fast2000 succeeded in shaking up the Louis Vuitton Cup second round.

The boys and girls on America True were whooping it up after winning the battle of the Golden Gate bridge - downing the more-fancied AmericaOne, whose timing at the start-line was out of whack.

The Swiss finally got control of their freakish twin-keeled boat to notch up their first win in Cup history, downing two-boat American team Abracadabra.

As Fast and True were sailing to victory in brisk winds on the Hauraki Gulf, the dejected Japanese were being towed back to the city with a bare mast in what should have been their moment of glory.

Gilmour had shown exactly why he is the world matchracing champion, out-manouevring Prada skipper Francesco de Angelis in the pre-start.

Asura forced the silver bullet Luna Rossa on to the wrong side of the committee boat at the starting gun, and the Japanese powered across the line and up the left side of the course, leading by 20s around the top mark.

The Italians wrestled with a twisted spinnaker, and fell further behind.

Nippon were handily clear of the Italians on the third leg when a mechanical tragedy struck - the titanium clew ring, which attaches the mainsail to the boom, broke. Losing control of the mainsail is akin to being without an engine, so the Japanese called it day.

Gilmour described it as "part of the life of these America's Cup boats - things break."

The Italians remain at the front of the fleet, but they have to admit they have had at least three touches of good luck already - overtaking AmericaOne and Young America when gear broke in the first round.

America True benefited from a reversal of fortune yesterday - beating AmericaOne under the same circumstances in which they lost their first clash.

Three weeks ago, True helmsman John Cutler drove his boat over the start-line early against the rival San Francisco challenge. Yesterday, AmericaOne got it wrong - their timing on board the boat was out by two seconds.

The battleship-grey boat crossed the line one second too soon, and had to turn around. The Trues were gone, and were never threatened, stretching out their lead upwind.

"As a skipper there's a terrible emptiness when you count down to zero and there's no gun," Cayard said. "Sometimes you're the bug, sometimes you're the windshield."

Young Australia had a heap of small mishaps on their first day at sea in the old OneAustralia boat, but skipper James Spithill refused to blame that for their loss to Le Defi. The French, he said, simply sailed better.