Yachting: Americans have themselves to blame

By SUZANNE MCFADDEN

Que sera, sera Young America.

Your run in this America's Cup has ended prematurely - even your fiercest rivals would never have imagined you bowing out before the semifinals of the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series.

There are those who cast Dawn Riley and her America True campaign as villains for denying you the chance of a showdown at noon with Le Defi France in the final matchup of the round robin.

And there are those who are not unhappy to see you flying north for Christmas.

But you know only too well that you were the real masters of your downfall in the fight for this old silver ewer, for so long the centrepiece in your New York Yacht Club home.

Young America simply lost too many races before yesterday's bizarre finish to their $80 million campaign.

There were days of bad luck - no one would wish on their worst enemy having to dive overboard from a boat snapped in half. The crew's confidence was eroded and they were unstandably wary of pushing the new boat too hard too soon.

But there were also days of bad management - poor tactics on the water, mediocre crew-work that cost them critical points in the final round.

Last night Young America admitted that they made a fatal mistake during the gestation period of the campaign - they became victims of their drive to design the fastest boats. They know now that they were guilty of spending too long drawing up the plans for USA53 and USA58, when they should have devoted more time to sailing the boats in Newport, Rhode Island, and ironing out their flaws.

Both boats arrived in Auckland in September, just over a month before the regatta began, without ever getting wet.

Syndicate head John Marshall, with 25 years of America's Cup experience, said the trade-off - a couple of extra months at the computer screen for a few seconds of boatspeed around the racecourse - had been their failure.

Kiwi designer Bruce Farr and his team had wanted that extra time. But in hindsight, the challenge believe it was the wrong decision.

When asked before the regatta if they had left it too late to break in the boats, skipper Ed Baird replied: "The America's Cup is all about risk."

Riley's decision not to take a risk, keeping her boat on dry land yesterday and handing nine points to the eager French, may have seemed unsportswoman-like.

The questions sprang up faster than USA53 started taking on water: did America True want to avoid the risk of damaging their only boat in a race which meant nothing to them (they had already qualified), or did they want a rival for the United States corporate dollar out of the picture?

Remember this - in almost 150 years, the America's Cup has never been fair. Riley has to put her syndicate's interests first. She only has one boat - and these boats break.

Even Marshall admitted he would have done the same in yesterday's 30-knot gusts.

Young America's fated boats, which were arguably among the fastest in the 2000 Cup generation, will now be put in mothballs and left at the base in Syndicate Row until the Cup is won.

Marshall spoke of another Young America campaign, but he was not sure whether the syndicate would fly the burgee of the New York Yacht Club next time.