Prada's drama on water matched in media room

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Suggesting Luna Rossa had been beaten by a "dog" was not a good move for an Italian journalist if he did not want to see Prada syndicate boss Patrizio Bertelli fly into a rage.

Questioning his honesty was also probably unwise, along with complaining about not getting an interview with an injured sailor, turning on the food and having a row about who were the biggest liars, the reporters or the syndicate.

The Italian press conferences have sometimes been more exciting than the jousting on the water at the America's Cup yachting series.

Prada had a bad day in anyone's eyes on Tuesday when skipper Francesco de Angelis got a whipping in the pre-start by Team New Zealand's Russell Coutts.

Luna Rossa, the Italians' boat, went fishing and found a large sheet of plastic to use as an unwanted brake on the keel.

Crewman Massimiliano Sirena was whacked in the head with a carbon weed-cleaning stick by an over-eager crewmate.

He needed seven stitches to a gash in his skull.

And with the race already over, the Italians - one man short after Sirena was put into a support boat and rushed off to the team doctor - had to grapple with a broken headsail track.

That meant that a solid beating became a thrashing.

A loss by 2m 43s saw Prada go 0-2 down in the best-of-nine series.

Enter the Italian journalists.

After a sarcasm-filled first question for Coutts about his no-show at an earlier press conference, 25 Italian reporters bundled Bertelli and de Angelis into a side room for their regular Italian-language debriefing.

Fortunately, the conference was in Italian.

Unfortunately for Prada, the room's walls were just not thick enough.

Thick, apparently, were the journalists' questions.

The first one was whether a Prada designer described Black Magic as a "dog" (it was actually a headline writer, not the designer) and, if so, how did Bertelli feel about his boat being beaten by a dog?

A bit harsh, considering Luna Rossa's bad luck in catching the plastic when trailing Black Magic by just two boat lengths.

A reporter followed up by accusing Bertelli of instructing crew not to talk to the media.

Bertelli hotly denied this and quite simply yelled at the reporters.

Some of them yelled back.

De Angelis and his tactician, Torben Grael, escaped into the relative calm of the corridors.

But the Bertelli attacks on the Italian media and vice versa went on for many, many minutes and could be heard even through a couple of closed doors.

There was apparently no winner, with Bertelli still furious when he left.

However, the journalists may yet benefit.

Bertelli was upset about the food - brownies and fruit - in the media conference room and threatened to bring his own breads and cheeses next time.

- NZPA