Yachting: Crunch time for French

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

A fateful crash amidst a day of disasters on the Hauraki Gulf yesterday has given top America's Cup challenger Stars & Stripes a day's grace - and could give the hapless French a negative score.

Team Dennis Conner have been granted a 24-hour delay to fix the split in the scoop of Stars & Stripes' stern - the legacy of a nasty nudge from the bow of Sixieme Sens yesterday.

Though cut and bruised, Stars & Stripes still came out of the day smiling.

They easily beat the ill-timed Le Defi effort to remain No 1 in the Louis Vuitton Cup semifinals, after day three of 10.

But the French, who got their timing all wrong at every turn yesterday, could be docked half a point today for failing to avoid the collision. Without a win yet, it would put them at minus 0.5.

Today's scheduled race between Stars & Stripes and America True will now be held over until the end of the semis.

Stars & Stripes and Prada were toiling over their broken boats last night in very different states of mind.

The fortunes of Prada, the glamour challenger, took a dive when their mast snapped in gentle winds yesterday. They had lost their second successive race.

But their repairs were quick - within two hours they were out sailing with a new mast.

While Stars & Stripes were upbeat - still the only unbeaten semifinalist - Prada were feeling the heat.

For so long in this regatta, the Italians have been the leaders, with the most reliable boats in the challenger fleet.

Today they are fourth of six boats - after two breakdowns in consecutive races.

They have lost a mast and a mainsail, but Prada skipper Francesco de Angelis must rally his troops so they do not lose their morale and momentum.

"We have to forget what happened today," he said.

"We have to consider that we lost another race, but still it is a long series."

Paul Cayard pulled off the starting manoeuvre of 2000, leaving Luna Rossa well and truly stranded.

Less than a minute from the startgun, AmericaOne spun in a tight circle around the committee boat and somehow squeezed between it and Luna Rossa, in a gap which de Angelis could not believe was big enough.

As AmericaOne crossed the startline, Prada were floundering.

But if USA61 showed agility in the pre-start, ITA45 showed distinct speed upwind to almost draw level before their catastrophe.

The failure was the tip cup - a small steel fitting at the end of the third spreader which held one of the shrouds keeping up the mast.

In a crazy mistake, the French entered the start box before the five minute gun and immediately copped a penalty.

They got themselves into a tighter knot at the startline, having to dip back under after crossing early.

Yet they once again showed phenomenal downwind speed - going so fast they smacked into the back of Stars & Stripes as the two boats converged on the bottom mark. The American's stern was cracked, the scoop distorted and water seeped into the hull.

But it was disaster after disaster for Le Defi - they struggled to lower their gennaker, dropped their headsail in the water, and were penalised a second time, for altering course too close.

As they changed to a new headsail, and carried out a turn, Stars & Stripes disappeared over the horizon, winning by more than three minutes.

Nippon partially answered the burning question yesterday - Asura is indeed a slick boat.

The Japanese boat used superior speed to outclass the solid America True by 11/2 minutes.