Prada worried by soft success

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Prada needs to be knocked to the canvas a couple of times in round three of the challenger series if they are to ever win the America's Cup.

The Italians have gone two rounds of the Louis Vuitton Cup so far, and only one syndicate - Stars & Stripes - landed a sweet enough punch to beat them.

Their record of 19-1 surprises their Kiwi coach Rod Davis, who reckons they need to lose a couple of races in the last of the round robins so they will be brought back to reality.

"We need it pounded into us," he said. "There's going to be blood in the gutters when we race in the semifinals, and we have to know how to street fight.

"We don't want to be fat, dumb and happy."

Seven-time Cup veteran Davis admitted that he did not expect his team to be so far ahead at this stage of the game - eight points clear of Dawn Riley's America True, with Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes a further 1.5 points back.

"We expected to lose more races than we have.

"It probably means we were a lot more prepared over the other teams than I thought.

"The crew can go toe-to-toe with anyone and hold their own - they're a lot better than they were three years ago, when most of them hadn't been matchracing.

"But I still think we have to up our game if we are to win the America's Cup."

Davis was not all that impressed with the way Prada scored their 19th win, over Abracadabra yesterday.

On the first beat the Hawaiians pushed the silver bullet, Luna Rossa, away from the mark and the Italian yacht had to tack away to avoid drifting into the side of Abracadabra.

Under the control of new helmsman Chris Larson, Abracadabra had almost half a minute's lead going around the first mark. But Luna Rossa was by far the faster boat and overhauled them downwind, eventually winning by 1m 10s.

If Davis was surprised with the performance of Prada, most of the world has been taken aback this past week by the rise and rise of one-boat teams America True and Stars & Stripes.

The boys-and-girls crew on True held off a gutsy Spanish challenge yesterday to finish their round with eight wins from 10.

Stars & Stripes had the same record after just winning their tussle with the Young Australians, who had one of their best races yet to dip out by only 23s.

The big race of the day - AmericaOne versus Young America - again turned into a major non-event, when AmericaOne skipper Paul Cayard outfoxed the New Yorkers' Ed Baird in the pre-start and caught a huge wind shift on the right side of the course in the first leg. It was game over by the top mark, AmericaOne winning by 1m 46s, leaving the disaster-ridden Young Americans with just four wins from 10 starts.

Even though AmericaOne and Young America have dropped off the pace in the second round, Davis still rates them as the opponents to fear.