Yachting: Coach Davis wants new crack at Cup

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Eight-time America's Cup veteran Rod Davis has coached Prada to the verge of becoming the 30th Cup challenger - but it is driving him to skipper a Cup boat again.

The American-born Kiwi is ready to pack in coaching and get back behind the wheel of an America's Cup campaign.

In two years, Davis has transformed the Prada crew from "absolutely awful" at matchracing to some days outfoxing the fox himself, Paul Cayard, and AmericaOne.

Now the Italians are 3-1 up in the first-to-five Louis Vuitton Cup final.

"It's been fun, but I'm ready to go back to my role steering sailboats," said Davis. "I'm not ready to retire from sailing in the America's Cup."

After helming boats for New Zealand, Australia and the United States for quarter of a century, Davis took a team of fellow Kiwis - Don Cowie and Alan Smith - to Italy to teach the Prada crew to matchrace.

His first stint as a coach has been rewarding, but it also drives him crazy.

"Sometimes on the coach boat, I go nuts when our guys split so far from the other boat," he said. "[Tactician] Torben Grael is so very good at predicting what's going to happen as far as the wind goes.

"But both he and John Kostecki [AmericaOne's tactician] are loose. They back their own judgment and just split. You sit there and go crazy, but you're not on the boat, so you don't know what's happening."

Davis has never been far from the wheel during his two years with Prada - driving the back-up Luna Rossa on test days.

"I get to steer the other boat all the time, and it's always fun when the B boat beats the A boat," he said. "But I tell ya, if you think there are some heated races now, you should see our internal races. Sometimes the boats have to be dragged apart till everyone calms down."

It is ironic that the last time Davis sailed for New Zealand, driving NZL20 in 1992, he lost the challenger finals to the Italians - and Cayard.

The Italians he has coached this time, however, were totally new to the America's Cup game - so green that he had to teach Grael and skipper Francesco de Angelis from scratch.

"I started by throwing those two into small, 30-foot boats. They did some ridiculous things in the beginning," he laughs.

"We did that for two summers in Punta Ala before they started matchracing in Cup boats here last year.

"Francesco went out on the world matchracing circuit as well. In his first Congressional Cup, he just escaped getting last. The next year he was third.

"They're still not matchracing the whole game - that will take another four or five years. But they are trading punches with Cayard and holding their own."

Davis has pushed them hard to be conservative in their matchracing style, to keep clean and out of trouble.

"If you have a speed edge you also tend to be conservative. If you don't have that edge, you throw caution to the wind," he said. "I think in some conditions, Prada has a little edge over AmericaOne."

Despite that, Davis said he had no idea who would win the finals series.

"But whoever survives the Louis Vuitton Cup will be as prepared as they can be to face Team New Zealand. And I have no idea if that's going to be good enough."