Yachting: Cloak and dagger stuff by Italians

By Suzanne McFadden

Italian team Prada are masking the identity of their boats to keep their America's Cup rivals guessing.

Mystery boat No 1 went sailing for the first time in Auckland yesterday but the Italians were giving no clues to which of their two Luna Rossa boats it was.

The silver boat went out with blank sails - no sign of its sail number.

All that was known was that it was the first Prada boat to arrive in Auckland - which was also kept secret - and no one outside the experts knows if it was ITA45 or ITA48.

Prada say they want to keep their boats anonymous at least until three days before the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series starts on October 18, when syndicates must nominate their boat to sail in round-robin one.

Young America may be up to similar tricks, as they took both of their boats out for the first time yesterday.

USA58 was launched without fanfare and joined the now practised USA53 - both black boats using sails without numbers.

With an eight-knot breeze, it was the perfect day to introduce a new America's Cup boat to the harbour yesterday - and AmericaOne's grey and green machine, USA49, also had her first splash with tactician John Kostecki at the wheel. Both Prada boats should be out together tomorrow.

Skipper Francesco de Angelis took the first boat through its paces for six hours yesterday, throwing in a few laps of the racecourse now marked with buoys.

Back on land, there was brief excitement as Team New Zealand's second boat pulled into Syndicate Row on the back of a truck.

NZL60's journey across the Harbour Bridge from Cookson boatyards in Glenfield to the TNZ shed, went without drama - unlike the first boat, NZL57's, trip.

NZL57 had to move out of the shed to make room for its sister - now that there are three black boats on site.

Team New Zealand could steal some of the thunder of the challengers - they hope to have both boats in trials on the gulf for the first time on October 17, the day before the challengers lock horns.