Yachting: Prada ready for battle of giants

By Suzanne McFadden

Today is the day of truth for Prada's silver bullet, Luna Rossa.

The Italians, looking more each day as the team to beat in the America's Cup challenger fleet, meet first the wily Paul Cayard on AmericaOne and then the might of Young America.

But today's weather forecast does not bode well for the showdowns of the giants - winds rising to 40 knots and seas of two metre swells. In that case the boats won't leave the dock.

If the Louis Vuitton Cup was a football league, there would be three divisions. In the premier league, you would have Prada, AmericaOne and Young America - all untouched by their rivals so far.

Struggling to lift themselves out of division three are Young Australia, Le Defi France the winless Swiss Fast2000.

Everyone else falls in the middle. The Spanish proved themselves fast upwind yesterday and America True are speedy downwind.

Team Dennis Conner's boat Stars & Stripes likes the winds strong.

But perhaps the biggest disappointment so far has been Nippon, who suffered their fourth straight loss yesterday - hard to understand from a team who had been rated so highly before this series began.

After pirouetting on a pinhead the boats crossed the startline together, and headed right till Nippon could no longer survive.

Stars & Stripes led around the top mark, but downwind, the gap slowly evaporated. But then everything went wrong for Gilmour.

As he tried to sneak between his opponent and the marker buoy, he fouled Stars & Stripes.

To add insult, the Nippon crew lost control of the spinnaker, and the big sail enveloped the yellow buoy.

Within seconds, Gilmour had been landed with two penalty turns, which gave Read the chance to drive away and win by 1m 14s.

The America True crew were exhausted at the end of their fierce battle with John Kolius' Abracadabra.

Kolius was first around the top mark by half a minute, but then shot off to the right side of the diamond-shaped course, failing to cover the Trues.

True helmsman John Cutler headed straight down the middle, showing off the speed of this boat downwind. Of the eight downwind legs they have sailed so far, the Trues have gained ground on seven of them.

The two US boats then engaged in the most furious encounter of the regatta so far - each tacking almost 30 times during the upwind leg.

Even at the death, there was little in it - the Trues holding out for a 26s win, their second victory so far.

After starting this series with a puff of smoke, Abracadabra seemed to have lost their magic touch yesterday.

They suffered their second defeat of the day to the jubilant Spanish crew, who stayed ahead for a half a minute all the way around the track.

The Young Australians - at least those who were old enough - celebrated with champagne and beer back on their barge last night after notching up their first win.

But it was a close thing for the Aussies. Talented 20-year-old skipper James Spithill guided the old '95 boat to more than a minute's advantage over the ailing Swiss boat Be Happy, only to be almost caught at the finish-line.

Young Australia won by a boat-length.

It was the best day for both boats - the Swiss later came close to Stars & Stripes, and the Australians were less than two minutes behind Nippon. But they are still in a league of their own.