Yachting: Urgency makes amigos of Spanish brothers

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Two warring brothers have taken over the wheel of Spanish boat Bravo Espana in their last-gasp bid to stay in the America's Cup.

Luis and Noluco Doreste, two of Europe's best sailors, will become helmsman and tactician respectively in the final round of the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series beginning today.

The Doreste brothers are now team-mates and rivals - they are also racing against each other to get to the Sydney Olympics in the Soling class next year.

After the next 11 days - probably more if the weather intervenes - five of the 11 challengers will be packing up and going home.

The Spanish are on the cusp of making the semifinals involving the top six. They are in seventh place going into today's first race against Abracadabra, who are in virtually the same predicament, in eighth spot.

With a win now worth nine points in this round anything is possible - even the hapless Swiss, with their difficult boat, believe they are still in with a chance of staying after Christmas.

Bravo Espana has always been a middle-of-the-pack competitor, but with major changes to both the boat and the crew it is shaping up like a new syndicate.

Skipper Pedro Campos said he had stepped down from driving the boat to allow his tactician, double Olympic gold medallist Luis Doreste, to take over the wheel. Former world Soling champ Noluco Doreste will call the tactics for his brother.

"They have sailed a lot together, so they will sail the boat now," Campos said.

Virtually everything on the boat was different - a smaller rudder, bigger genoa, smaller mainsail, bigger spinnaker pole and bigger wings on the keel bulb.

A win today could move the Spanish up into the top six if the troubled Young Americans lose to Prada's new Luna Rossa, ITA48.

There are a whole heap of new boats in this round for different reasons. The Japanese have introduced Idaten, JPN52, because its battered and bruised sister Asura may not have survived another round.

Abracadabra are going for broke in USA50, their radical boat which has sat in the shed since arriving from Hawaii.

Only Paul Cayard's AmericaOne have decided to stay with their first boat, resisting the temptation to bring in the three-week-old USA61.

This is the stage of the cup game when syndicates with two boats should make another leap forward, with the one they have held in reserve supposedly faster.

Said one-boat America True helmsman John Cutler: "Now two-boat teams should get even stronger. But the one-boat teams are working pretty hard amongst ourselves as a group to stay up there." That has meant the one-boaters have been trialling against each other in this break between rounds.

All but Young Australia have made changes to their boats for the last 10 races in the ongoing quest for more speed.

It is now more cut-throat than ever. One break, or one slip, could be fatal to the hopes of a multi-million dollar syndicate.