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Arrivederci
Prada Challenge (12/17/02)
(source
: LV
Cup)
|
The defending Louis Vuitton Cup champions, and
the Challenger of Record, the Prada Challenge, was eliminated
from further competition when calm conditions meant
only one race was sailed on Tuesday.
Prada needed two wins to tie the score line and force
a one race sail-off on Wednesday. It was a sad end for
the Italian squad, who had proved to be a colourful,
stylish and popular champion in 2000, both at home in
Italy and with the New Zealand public.
Prada, in a position where it needed two wins just to
extend the series, started the day with a crew shake-up
as Gavin Brady was promoted off the training boat, and
onto the helm of Luna Rossa.
But at the 10:30 start time, the wind was well below
the seven-knot limit for starting a race. Both boats
waited patiently on the Hauraki Gulf in the calm conditions
for nearly six hours, before the Race Committee made
a heroic effort to start racing, firing the warning
signal just moments before the 16:00 time limit.
Under normal circumstances, it is very unlikely racing
would have started in such unstable conditions. The
race started in very shifty winds and no lead was safe
in the changing conditions.
In the middle of the race, the wind died completely,
and the Italians were the ones who were graced by a
fickle wind first. As OneWorld wallowed helplessly,
completely becalmed, its crew watched Prada sail away
in a building breeze.
The Italians were nearly 15-minutes ahead before OneWorld
got a sniff of the wind. The win will end up as a hollow
victory for Prada, as it wasn’t enough to tie the series
and force a one race ‘sail-off. The Italians are in
the odd position of being eliminated from the regatta
on the back of a win.
Under the Louis Vuitton Cup conditions which all the
Challengers agreed to, “if at the end of the scheduled
and reserve days of each Semi Finals match, a yacht
has not won four points, the winner shall be the yacht
with the higher score.” (Condition 8.3 (d) (iii)).
OneWorld earned the important 3 – 1 lead on the scoreboard
that would propel them to an eventual series victory
today, with two wins over Prada on Monday.
The Semi Final Repechage starts on Friday. There will
be skipper’s press conference on Thursday morning at
09:30. |
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A
collision between the two Prada boats (12/08/02)
(sources
: 2003ac.com
&
Americascup.co.nz)
|
According to Peter Montgomery : "...Interesting
to hear yesterday a big collision between the two Prada
boats; holes in both boats as they T-boned out there
so that is extra work for the Prada camp -- this after
all they've been doing on the major changes to the boats
so a big collision with Prada out on the water."
At today’s skippers’ Semi-Final press conference, Prada
skipper Francesco De Angelis confirmed that the boat
is repaired, "The boat is ready and we’ll be sailing
today", said de Angelis, adding with his usual
dry wit, "It’s like skiing. If you don’t fall over
you’re not trying hard enough. It’s just hard work for
the shore crew." |
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Break-in
at Prada (11/30/02)
(source
: Prada
Challenge)
|
Prada reported this morning the theft of Alessandra
Pandarese's laptop computer from the premises of her
supporting law firm in Auckland. Ms Pandarese is the
principal legal advisor to Prada Challenge 2003 and
secretary-general of Challenger of Record Management
(CORM).
The theft of the computer containing all the lawyer’s
material concerning the case against OneWorld comes
at a sensitive stage when the organisers of the competition
have been forced to declare repechage’s results as being
provisional.
The break-in was discovered at ten o'clock Saturday
morning in Auckland when Prada's head lawyer arrived
at the law offices. A back window 1.5 metres above ground
level was open. The monitor was lying broken on the
floor. The laptop computer itself, which is usually
in the docking station, was gone. Nothing else was missing
from the office.
According to Alessandra Pandarese, there was nothing
else missing form the law firm. Other computers and
electronic equipment were left undisturbed.
The Auckland police were called and an investigation
is under way. |
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Team
Prada is continuing with ITA 74 (11/22/02)
(sources
: Prada
Challenge
&
NZ
Herald)
|
Prada skipper Francesco de Angelis was unable to
attend as he left the dock at 8.30am to test Luna Rossa
ITA-74, re-launched and measured at dawn after undergoing
extensive work.
It was the first and only chance for Team Prada to test
ITA-74 alongside ITA-80, which has also undergone major
modifications, before making the final decision on which
boat to use for the repechage.
At 12:25 (the time limit set by the rules was 1.05pm)
Team Prada declared that they would continue racing
with Luna Rossa ITA-74 when the repechage begins.
Matteo Plazzi, navigator on Luna Rossa, said the crew
worked through the night to get ITA-74 ready to race
again. For the second time in the challenger series,
Prada grafted a new bow to its primary race yacht, ITA-74
or Luna Rossa.
"We stepped the mast around 2am, put the boat in the
water at 4am and at 5am began measurement. Around 7am
we were able to carry out the first structural tests
and at 8.30 we left the dock."
Today's outing was used primarily to check that everything
was functioning correctly.
"Unfortunately the wind was very shifty and we were
unable to assess the speed of the boat," said Plazzi.
"However, the few hours that we spent on the water were
precious because they enabled us to gain, once more,
confidence in our boat and tomorrow we will be able
to focus only on racing."
"In the ideal world we would have obviously liked to
have 3 or 4 days to train with ITA-74 before the repechage
round, but this was not feasable as we didn't have enough
time. We trained with ITA-80 and were able to test some
solutions that we might decide to use on ITA-74."
Light winds were forecast for Saturday, although stronger
winds later in the round could sorely test the confidence
of the Italian team in the yacht's recovery from rebuilding
program. |
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Prada
is making major changes to ITA 74 (11/19/02)
(source
: Prada
Challenge)
|
Alinghi Challenge and Oracle BMW Racing are having
the easiest time right now. They have already qualified
for the semifinals by winning their quarterfinal matches
in the top half. They can carry out their improvements
in peace and quiet until December 9 when they start
to race again.
It's harder for the four teams that are left; two losers
in the top half, OneWorld and Prada, and the winners
in the bottom half, Victory Challenge and Team Dennis
Conner, that only have until Saturday to improve their
boats before it's time to race again.
Prada is currently making major changes to its boat
ITA 74, replacing the bow for the second time, raising
questions about whether the boat will be ready for racing
by Saturday.
If not, Prada can use their second boat ITA 80 which
has also undergone extensive modifications and had a
new bow attached.
"We sailed today on ITA 80 on which we are continuing
the development of mast and sails", Francesco de
Angelis, skipper of Luna Rossa, said "We will keep
training on this boat until ITA 74 is ready to sail
again." |
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Strategic
move by Prada Challenge (11/16/02)
(source
: Prada
Challenge)
|
Team Prada announced last night the withdrawal
of its yacht Luna Rossa ITA 74 from further racing in
the quarter finals series against Alinghi in the 2002-2003
Louis Vuitton Cup.
Late last night Team Prada filed a request to execute
a series of modifications to Luna Rossa ITA 74. Work
started immediately at the end of the so-called "no
change period" when no changes are allowed to be made
on the competing yacths.
Over the next few days Prada's crew and shore team will
work around the clock with a roster system. At the same
time the team will work on the development of its second
yacht Luna Rossa ITA 80.
"Last night, after our third match against Alinghi we
assessed the situation and evaluated what we had seen
in the first three days of racing", said Francesco
de Angelis, skipper of Luna Rossa.
"We then decided to seize the opportunity to make
further midifications to ITA 74. Considered the weather
forecast which called for strong winds in the next few
days, the race period may have extended even further
and had we kept on racing we would have lost our window
of opportunity".
"What we wanted to see with Alinghi we had already
seen at the end of yesterday's race", de Amngelis
said. "The modifications to ITA 74, which we are
already carrying out, had been planned quite a while
ago, this is why we were able to decide within an hour
from the end of the race to change strategy and be operative
immediately."
Having pulled out of the quarter finals, Team Prada
proceeds to the quarter finals repechage that will be
raced on a best of seven series starting from Saturday,
November 23.
Alinghi, having thus scored 4 points over Prada in the
quarter finals, advances to the semifinals scheduled
to start on December 9. |
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Team
Prada is continuing with ITA 74 (11/11/02)
(source
: NZ
Herald)
|
Many were expecting the resurgent Prada syndicate
to change from ITA74 to their heavily modified second
boat ITA80. But skipper Francesco de Angelis said they
still wanted to do more testing before using her in
racing.
"The last three days of work have been very positive,"
he said, "but it is really difficult to draw conclusions
in that time. There are many different wind conditions
under which we would like to test ITA80."
De Angelis said the advantage for those who went directly
to the semifinals was considerable, therefore the stakes
were high.
"We cannot afford to make any mistakes. If we want to
win we have to do everything right." |
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Prada
put ITA 80 into the water (11/07/02)
(Sources
: Prada
&
sport.telegraph.co.uk)
|
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ITA 80 sailed today for the first time after it
underwent extensive modifications here in Auckland
during the past weeks. It, too, has a knuckle bow,
pioneered by Team New Zealand 2000, and now almost
universally adopted. ITA 74 was previously modified
after Round One.
A fresh shore breeze was blowing from the West on
the Hauraki Gulf and the sea was quite flat, several
boats from different syndicates were out practicing
or testing. Francesco de Angelis and his men started
the tuning and testing of the boat in its new configuration.
In the afternoon also ITA 74 went out and the two
boats sailed together. The crew still has a few days
to complete tuning, testing and comparisons before
the start of the Quarter Finals, Tuesday November
12.
Indicative of how hard the Italians are pushing is
that a third bow has been built by Paul Hakes in Wellington,
at the bottom of the North Island and supposedly away
from prying eyes.
The supposition is that Prada's designers have tank-tested
more bow shapes and the spare is available for grafting
on once ITA 74 has been evaluated against ITA 80.
It's plain that Ernesto Bertarelli's Swiss team, masterminded
by Russell Coutts, have many of their next technical
moves mapped out and tested.
Coutts, who does not know whether Prada will put up
ITA 80 against Alinghi in their quarter-final pairing
or stick with ITA 74, said: "We'll be intrigued to
see what affect the modifications will have to their
boat."
Coutts is keenly aware that a few days is no time
for Prada to launch, measure and test ITA 80's structure
and performance. "The reality is that you rely a lot
on your technical team to predict the gains," he said.
"But it always takes some time on the water to get
the best out of whatever modifications you're doing."
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