Yachting: French need teamwork or face Waterloo

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

French skipper Bertrand Pace - the little general of world sailing - knows he has to win every race from today onwards to stay in the America's Cup.

But he may have to shut out a lot of the advice from his crew if Le Defi France are to make it.

Le Defi have staged a late assault on the Louis Vuitton Cup qualifying series - a four-minute win over Stars & Stripes yesterday keeping their chances alive.

But Pace is mindful that there is a saying in French sailing circles along the lines that if you have a boat and 16 Frenchmen, you have a boat with 16 Frenchmen. If you have a boat with 16 Americans, you have a crew.

"My problem is, I have a boat with 16 tacticians," Pace shrugged. "So it is difficult.

"The crew up the front of the boat all have their say, they tell the afterguard what they think, and that is okay. But I am the one who has to make the last decision."

And he has been making some very good decisions over the last few days.

As it stands today, with five days to go in this final round-robin, four of the six semifinal spots are more or less taken.

AmericaOne, America True and Prada are through to the January 2 semis, and Nippon are just one win away from joining them. They have a walkover win over the absent Swiss on Sunday which will get them through.

Stars & Stripes are on the cusp of qualification, but the next four syndicates are separated by just four points.

Young America should have been a shoo-in - with one of the fastest boats in the fleet - but the New Yorkers are wallowing in eighth place.

Still, they and the French are probably in the best position to survive the cut, each with five races still to sail. Spain and Abracadabra have only three apiece.

Pace knew that a loss yesterday would have crushed the hopes of the young French team, but today they are right in the thick of the drama. Their opponents today are the Spanish, who are on a slide - losing to Prada by 51/2 minutes in dastardly light winds.

The French believe they need to win at least four of their five races to carry on past Christmas. Among their opponents, however, are AmericaOne, America True and on the final day - which could turn into a decider - Young America.

"I think we can do it," Pace said. "I am pushing hard to make sure everyone is concentrating - but we are French, and sometimes it is not that way."

It was another painful crawl around the Hauraki Gulf for the challengers yesterday - two races did not start until a few minutes before the 3 pm deadline, when the winds finally rose above five knots.

The flukey, light breezes meant some massive time differences between boats - AmericaOne scoring a nine-minute victory over Nippon. But the Japanese boat's skipper Peter Gilmour admitted that AmericaOne was simply the faster boat in the conditions.