GBR Challenge wins protest

after Prada drive them into a restricted zone in the America's Cup Jubilee round the island race

The UBS Jubilee Around the Island Race was effectively race three for Ian Walker's GBR52 America's Cup crew in their match-up with Francesco de Angelis and his Prada team on ITA 45 after the two opening fleet races on Monday had been shared, one each.

The round the island course is not what America's Cup Class yachts were built for but Walker and his crew were clear in their intent - to put up another professional display against the vastly more experienced Italian syndicate and also to reinforce the message to the British public they sent on Monday, that they are in business.

In the latter respect, a thrilling finish against the Italians served their purposes better than they could have hoped for as the fight to the death off Cowes Green captivated thousands watching on land and on shore or listening to Dick Johnson's riveting Cowes Radio commentary which would have done justice to the closing stages of a Grand National or a penalty shoot-out in a football cup final. But more of that later.

At the start, Walker and tactician Ado Stead working with navigator Julian Salter, tried to go for a conservative approach with three knots of tide under them threatening to push them over early, but as on Monday, they were again at the line with pace and flying. "We had a discussion about it and decided we ought to be conservative - I'd hate to see what we do when we are not conservative," Walker quipped afterwards.

An excellent long beat down to No Man's Land Fort and then to the specially-placed Nab Light Vessel, saw GBR 52 establish a nearly two-minute lead over Dean Barker's crew in NZL 32 which rounded the light vessel with De Angelis's crew to leeward of her. "We had a great first beat with good speed and basically played everything pretty much right," said Walker.

After a tight reach to St Catherines Point, the British crew lost out a little to the Italians on the way to the Needles who made gains after they hoisted their Code Zero on the elegant grey and red Luna Rossa. Then, at the Needles, came the first big drama on GBR 52 when the British crew attempted a gybe-peel onto a heavy-air asymmetric. It was an ambitious manoeuvre and it almost ended in disaster as the dropping sail went under the boat and shredded, wrapping itself around the rudder.

For a few anxious moments Walker had no steerage as GBR 52 nearly broached close to the wreck of the SS Varvassi. But the crew managed to recover and, with their lead still intact, began the long 12-mile run against the tide back to the finish off the Royal Yacht Squadron. Again the Italians made gains on this section of the course as the British hung out in the tide, assuming that Prada would have to double-gybe them to avoid the ledges on the island shore, allowing the hosts to increase their lead. But the weather played into Prada's hands.

Contined on pages 2 and 3...