Playing with the big boys

GBR Challenge beaten by Prada in today's finals at the America's Cup Jubilee Regatta

GBR held the left, replacing their gennaker with a considerably older sail, one that was used during the Japanese challenge for the cup. Prada, flying a new gennaker in place of their spinnaker gybed to the right. Just as Luna Rossa was vanishing into the mist, GBR 52 gybed on to starboard. Silence fell upon the boat as they realised Prada would be crossing their bow four boat lengths ahead of them.

The team on Luna Rossa,still in need of losing their penalty, dropped their gennaker one boat length from the finish. Team GBR 52 could only look on to see whether the Italians could complete their 360 degree turn in time to finish ahead of the British team. They could, finishing just six seconds in front to take the Louis Vuitton Trophy.

For the GBR Challenge team all is not lost: "For me, I feel like we have lost the derby. However, it also came to realise that this is it. We're in with the big boys now," explained Peter Harrison, head of GBR Challenge. When you consider that the team have only been training in these boats for the past four months, their close finish today is an incredible achievement. David Barnes, technical manager, commented, "This is a fantastic, we achieved our goal of two boats in the top four. The last three months have been geared towards getting the crews confident in the boats ready for racing. Today the teams proved we have succeeded ."