Yachting: Prada's turn for spinnaker tears

By Suzanne McFadden


For once a torn spinnaker cost Prada a race. And rival AmericaOne skipper Paul Cayard couldn't hide his grin.

"They finally ripped a $70,000 [US] spinnaker," Cayard crowed.

"The bad news is, when a $70,000 broken spinnaker gets caught on the rudder it doesn't come off easily. Ours come right off, ours fall off like toilet paper."

AmericaOne's accident-prone $US50,000 nylon kites held together in yesterday's tense 9s victory - for the first time in three races in the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger final.

But Luna Rossa's tough-as-nails Cuban fibre sail dropped into the sea and smothered the boat's keel and rudder, acting like a brake.

At least four crew, one of them dangling over the side by his shoelaces, toiled for half an hour to try to untangle the mess.

The accident happened as Prada were lowering their kite, ready for a luffing duel with AmericaOne on the approach to the second mark.

The huge sail tumbled into the sea in front of Luna Rossa's bow, and in the frenzy the boat ran over the top of it.

As it wrapped around the underwater appendages, the crew tried to drag in as much as they could. But some of the stubborn Cuban fibre refused to budge.

As the boat carried on, albeit a fraction slower, trimmer Michele Ivaldi was lowered over the side of the boat by his ankles to try to pull fragments of the sail free.

AmericaOne, sailing right alongside, were not impressed that Prada had a man outside the boat and unfurled their red protest flag. It was pulled back in after AmericaOne's victory.

While the dangling Ivaldi managed to recover a small chunk of the spinnaker, Prada were getting pretty concerned about their impaired speed.

Tactician Torben Grael went to work with a flossing stick - used to hook seaweed off the keel and rudder.

Prada skipper Francesco de Angelis was frustrated by the time it took - a full upwind leg of the race - to clear the debris.

"We survived until the bottom mark, but when we had to go upwind it was quite painful. The boat was going sideways," he said.

Back on shore, Cayard asked de Angelis: "So what's the score now? Nine-one?" It was, in fact, the second time that Prada had destroyed a kite. Their first was in the opening round robin.