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ITALY REMAINS IN LEAD AT AUCKLAND'S ROAD TO THE AMERICA'S CUP REGATTA
By Paul Larsen
Auckland--April 20 -- Team Caribbean has its work cut out for it if the Virgin Islanders are to advance into the Challenger Finals in the 1998 Road to the America's Cup Regatta. Their loss today to the Italian Prada Challenge, coupled with Yaka France's defeat of the Italians, means the Americans must beat France twice and hope that Italy beats their European neighbor in their last match. Scores at the end of today's racing, which included a non-start between Team Caribbean and Yaka France because of no wind, were Italy with 4 wins, France with 3 and Team Caribbean at 1.
"While we recognize we have a wall to climb," said Team Caribbean skipper Peter Holmberg.," we're definitely still alive and we look forward to the challenge. Tomorrow's match-ups present several interesting scenarios. We race Yaka twice and Prada once, and Yaka and Prada race. We must beat France twice or we're out. If we win those races and beat Prada and then Yaka beats Prada, all three teams finish the round robins with four wins and identical records against each opponent. Where we go from there, I'll leave to the race committee. And if we beat the French twice and Prada also beats them, we go into a sail-off with Yaka, so we're still in this. Remember that the Caribbean puts on its best show at the end of the day, and we plan to ride into this sunset ready to race another day."
In this morning's first match, Yaka France skipper Luc Pillot and tactician Sebastien Destremau pulled off a masterful start by forcing Prada to tack away from the committee boat as the gun went off, and by the time the Italians recovered, they were unable to overcome their opponent's decided advantage. Left only with the tactics of the trailing boat, Prada skipper Francesca di Angeles attempted a tacking and gybing duel, but Pillot employed a classic match race covering strategy and sailed away with his third victory.
Team Caribbean's downfall in its race against Prada was a serious problem with dousing the spinnaker and rounding the leeward mark at the end of the first downwind leg. Once again Holmberg and crew led over the start line, and once again a windshift gave the Italians an early advantage, a situation that seems to have repeated itself a number of times in Team Caribbean's races here. But contrary to yesterday's race, Prada was unable to shake the Americans on the first beat and for most of the first run. But the spinnaker problems at the end of that leg cost Team Caribbean more than 30 seconds and although they regained half of that on the next leg, it was too little too late.
The final race of the day was the Yaka/Team Caribbean non-starter, which seemed to emphasize the light and fluky conditions so prominent over the past three days. The abandoned race set up the scenarios Holmberg discussed, hopefully to be played out in the stronger winds forecast for tomorrow.
Team Caribbean is sponsored in the New Zealand regatta by GANT USA and American Airlines. For information and photos, visit the Team Caribbean web site at www.amcup.vi.
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