Off the water though, the contest is far from over as the Sean Reeves/OneWorld affair and subsequent protest from Stars & Stripes and Prada threaten to overturn the ‘on the water’ results. However whilst the legal eagles slug it out backstage, the sailors did what they do best out on a seasonally warm Hauraki Gulf and put on a fabulous display of race-craft at its best.

The last chance saloon bars’ door policy was ruthlessly strict though as Prada and OneWorld closed out their matches in style whilst the white hot pressure told on their rivals, forcing some cruel errors. Bang on cue today racing got underway in a moderate 13-15 knots with a sloppy sea that kept the genoa trimmers and grinders working to the max all afternoon to keep the speed and power up. First start of the day saw Prada and Victory come together with the Swedes demoting Jesper Bank once again and the aggressive Magnus Holmberg assuming the handlebars.

Holmberg’s lack of match practice shone through as with two minutes to go, Rod Davis powered Luna Rossa into the lead back position before dialing down the line, starting at full pace to leeward of Victory. The Swedes had no option but to tack off to the starboard side of the course to clear their air and roll the dice on the first shift. Prada, who have looked a click faster than Victory all series stayed on to the port side of the course before realising that the Swedes were hooking into a nice pressure band and tacked to cover. With the starboard advantage in their pocket, Victory cashed in to take an early lead but Prada were cool under pressure and opted to sit tight to leeward of Victory and out-muscle them on a drag race to the first mark.

The crucial part of the race was the final approach to the windward mark as Prada sailed into a 10 degree header right on cue at the port entry layline to the mark which enabled them to tack and just clear the bow of Victory on port. Rounding the top mark on a bear away set the delta was 15 seconds and as Sweden gybe-set; Prada covered and hustled their every move. Francesco de Angelis is without doubt one of the world’s best downwind sailors and his communication with the crew off the wind is vocal to say the least. However by the first leeward mark the team had pumped and worked the ‘Airfix’ model ITA-74 into a 26-second lead that enabled them enough leverage to adopt the covering mode and keep the Swedes at arms length.

Rounding the next two marks Prada held solid with 32 and 27 second deltas before it all went fatally wrong for Sweden on the last beat. With the bit between their teeth, Victory initiated what looked like becoming a classic tacking duel straight after the last leeward mark but the hardware gremlins came out to haunt them again. After the second tack, the Sparcraft J-lock end fitting attached to the head of the genoa exploded causing the headsail to sag, meaning that the crew had to drop the sail to the deck before re-launching on a secondary halyard. You could almost feel the frustration aboard Victory as they saw any hopes of a face-saving upset disappear before their eyes with Prada sailing off to the horizon.

By the finish Prada had mercilessly extended their lead to 1 minute 37 seconds and for the popular Swedish team their Cup summer was over. Jan Stenbeck’s vision of Sweden being back in the America’s Cup game was achieved and they now have a fantastic launch pad from which to challenge in the future. Let’s hope they’ll be back…

No stranger to ‘comebacks’ is Dennis Conner and his Stars & Stripes band who came out slugging today but had no answers to the outstanding crew-work and ultimate boatspeed of OneWorld. The Jenson Button of sailing, James Spithill was, however, in dynamite form right from the start for the Seattle challenge as he allowed Ken Read to blow himself out whilst he guided OneWorld into the starboard hand passing lane at the gun. Read will look back on this Cup with regret and rue the sinking of USA-77 off Long Beach in July as the crucial time-sapping factor that pre-empted their ultimate demise. As Stripes powered down the line to the pin end, over their shoulder they watched as Spithill ran and hid before coming back to the committee boat end and hooking the line right on the gun. Masterful stuff from the 23 year old!

By the time Stripes attempted the first cross after 4 minutes of racing, Spithill and Peter Gilmour had put the peddle to the floor and squeaked into a nice right hand shift to open an initial one boatlength lead. From there on OneWorld never let Stripes get right and they protected all the way out to the starboard layline and from where I sat were in a higher and faster mode all afternoon. With a 20-second lead at the first mark, the action was fast and furious and the ensuing downhill leg saw Stripes launch an asymmetric kite whilst OneWorld launched their symmetric cousin. For the purist it was intriguing to see the straight liner versus the angled and then to round it all off we were treated to a perfect ‘Mexican’ drop at the leeward mark by OneWorld as they rounded 16 seconds ahead- Professional sailing at its best! Stars & Stripes were throwing everything bar the kitchen sink at this contest and with a commendable ‘never say die’ attitude they applied maximum pressure initiating a tacking duel that had the grinders lungs screaming for oxygen.

OneWorld are a class act on the water though and with just a little boatspeed edge, looked in total control. By mark 3 the delta was just 15 seconds and the run saw Stripes close down the gap further to 12 seconds but in reality OneWorld were never going to offer up a passing opportunity and controlled the starboard advantage all race. Then at the final mark came the killer blow as the fired up Stripes crew rounded 21 seconds astern and went for the perfect hoist. As the foredeck crewman and mid-bow fed the spinnaker out of the hatch-a manoeuvre these guys have done a million times-the mid bowman released the kite too early and it billowed out over the inflatable windward marker buoy.

The following ‘on-the-water’ judge yellow flagged the incident meaning that Stripes would have to complete a penalty turn before the finish and the air turned blue at the back of Dennis Conner’s charge. It was all over and there was nothing that the who’s who of yachting afterguards could do to claw back the distance except to pray for a miracle. The ‘miracle’ never came and OneWorld cruised to the line to score an eventual 1 minute dead victory to advance to the semi-finals where for certain they will face a much-harder contest against the Italian boys of the Prada camp.

For Dennis Conner’s camp it was abject misery and begs the question as to whether nine time Mr America’s Cup will ever be back at this great competition. With budgets soaring and the likes of Larry Ellison and Ernesto Bertarelli upping the ante, this campaign could well be his last. If it is then one of the greatest sportsmen that the world has seen will be sorely missed by the Cup community-2006 without Dennis? It just wouldn’t be the same!

Source: GBR Challenge Media