Italians respond swiftly to blow

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Inside Prada's walls, skipper Francesco de Angelis is known as the world's most superstitious man. He wears the same sailing shirt every day, and refuses to change his sunglasses, even to the regulation Prada brand.

In his native Italy, 17 is the unlucky number - the equivalent of our 13.

So 17 minutes after yesterday's start of the Louis Vuitton semifinal race against AmericaOne, it was almost as if de Angelis was waiting for something to happen.

And it did. The mast snapped - and the race was lost. But it won't be end of the Italians, the glamour syndicate of the America's Cup challenger series.

The Prada challenge is well-heeled, and has already chewed up more than $100 million. Before yesterday, their ample cupboard stored six masts - and within two hours of docking, the crew had stepped a new mast and were out sailing in the setting sun.

For Patrizio Bertelli, boss of both the syndicate and the Prada fashion house, yesterday's greatest loss was not the mast or the badly torn mainsail.

It was losing one more point in the semifinals, forfeiting the race to AmericaOne, and "having less statistical chance of making the final."

Prada are now fourth of six boats - and for the first time in three months, appear fragile.

Prada's silver boat, Luna Rossa, was recovering well from a poor start when the accident happened - caused by a broken steel fitting which holds the shrouds that keep the mast up.

Bertelli said: "The first thing in my mind was change it, change it quickly."

A Prada fashion show could not have choreographed the break better. It was a designer break - the mast snapped cleanly in the middle and folded neatly down on to the deck, missing the crew. Within minutes it was tidied up and tied down - the rigging arranged like an avant-garde sculpture.

Stars & Stripes still lead the semifinals with three wins from three but they too had problems. Last night Dennis Conner's crew were patching up a metre-long split in the stern of the boat, after a collision with Le Defi France.