Yachting: Team NZ tough but not invincible: de Angelis

Prada skipper Francesco de Angelis is under no illusions about how hard it will be to wrest the America's Cup from Team New Zealand's grasp in three years.

But he said that while Team New Zealand were better than the rest at the moment, they were still beatable.

De Angelis, known as the gentleman of the sport, said Luna Rossa's crew had been through a long and difficult challenger series but he was making no excuses after Prada lost 5-0.

"In the last two weeks I didn't see too many weaknesses around ... They had very good technical developments since '95.

"That doesn't mean doing a good job they cannot be beaten, but for sure it takes a strong task."

Prada and the Punta Ala Yacht Club have become the challenger of record for Team New Zealand, and while Prada boss Patrizio Bertelli said it was too soon to say how the challenge would be structured for 2003, there would not be wholesale changes. He would remain the sole financier for the challenge, but said that because the team was now established, he would not need to spend the $US55 million ($114 million) it had cost this time.

De Angelis, tactician Torben Grael and most of the sailing team would be back.

Bertelli said through an interpreter that some teams started from scratch each challenge "but that is clearly not our policy."

Prada had done a great job with the team which already existed. The syndicate had yet to determine its sailing plan for the next couple of years, before the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series begins in late 2002.

De Angelis said that in Italy, work would resume in June.

Asked if fatigue had been a problem for Prada's sailors, after the four-month challenger series, he said it had not been an issue at the start of the America's Cup match.

- NZPA