Prada levels

Italian team make dramatic comeback on day two of Louis Vuitton Cup semi-finals

Luna Rossa (ITA-74) BEAT ONEWORLD (USA-67) – delta 00:20
OneWorld and Luna Rossa are level pegging by 1-1

In a turn around of fortunes, Prada gained from a big left hand wind shift and stole into the lead on the final beat, after the American team had built up a comfortable lead and led round the first four marks.

Tactician Torben Grael called for the left side of the course on the final beat and when Peter Gilmour’s OneWorld failed to cover, the Italian team separated out to 600m from OneWorld, dug into a big header and then tacked over to steal the lead. The Italian crew held on all the way down the final run to win by 20 seconds.

Starting in grey, overcast conditions with low cloud from a lingering cold front over the Hauraki Gulf, the winds were light from the start and very shifty. After consulting with the OneWorld weather team, Charlie McKee was hoisted up the rig to continue spotting for wind.

At four minutes to go, in the pre-start McKee was heard to make a definite call for the right. The OneWorld afterguard duly delivered and won the right side of the start line. The first shift was as McKee called and the American boat took the lead and led round the windward mark by 21 seconds.

Downwind Prada’s speed did not look superior today and Gilmour’s team held off the Italian advance, despite a heart stopping moment on the second beat when Prada gained from a big left hander. OneWorld held their nerve, however, to gain back on the next right shift. But, it was not to be OneWorld’s day and a similar big left shift on the final beat proved to be fatal for the Americans and gave Prada their first win of the semi-finals.

"It was a very tough day to hit the shifts and I think both boats were trying to stay close to their position but also keep an eye on the wind," commented Prada tactician Torben Grael after the racing. "OneWorld had a pretty good start and managed to get the big right on the first beat and went round the first mark ahead. We kept the distance on the run and couldn’t get any closer to them. And on the second beat we had some good opportunities but they did pretty well. Then we had a pretty nice opportunity, I thought, on the second run, but the wind shifted more than we expected and the pressure came in kind of slow so they almost went straight to the leeward mark and so we couldn’t make a gain there. Then finally on the last beat we had a little opportunity at the end and it was very good to be able to capitalise on that one, as we had many opportunities in the last two days and after so many of them it was good to grab one.

Charlie McKee admitted that OneWorld had sailed fairly loose today. "We felt the conditions justified that," he said after the racing. "It was very puffy and shifty so that even if a boat was relatively close to you they could be in quite different wind. These guys are very clever with the wind. We got our lead basically by playing the wind well and we definitely made a mistake on the last beat and didn’t shift into closer covering mode as we got later in the race. But given our young history with them, them having passed us twice on the downwinds yesterday, we weren’t that keen to have them ramming right on our stern as well.

At present we are waiting to find out if the one point penalty to OneWorld following the Arbitration panel's ruling means that the score in this match is 1-0 to Prada.

McKee gave his views about the Arbitration Panel's ruling. "From my perspective, the words written on the paper were pretty clear that we were starting at minus one. So I don’t see a lot of confusion in that regard. But regardless, we’re early in a long series against a very tough opponent. It’s still sailboat racing. Whatever the other shenanigans that have gone on, that might be surprising to some of us who aren’t America’s Cup veterans, ultimately it’s still a sailboat race and we’re looking to sail well and win more races than they do. The mood in the camp is fine. I’d be lying if I said we weren’t shocked the other day and we were left reeling a little bit. But from the sailing team’s point of view, we have been through lots of adversity before and most of us have a lot of experience at sailboat racing, and you try to win sailboat races. So, it’s fine."