Il Moro Questions Victory : Sailing: Italian syndicate skipper thinks Kiwis were holding back in the first battle between challenger favorites.

When America’s Cup ’92 came to its first showdown Sunday, the Il Moro di Venezia winner suggested that the New Zealand losers let him win.

“You could say that,” Paul Cayard said. “(But) I’m not taking too many conclusions.”

Peter Blake, general manager of the New Zealand team, told reporters, “That’s for us to know and you to find out.”

In the anticipated match between the two most powerful challenger teams, the Italians won by a comfortable 2 minutes 14 seconds, but only after the lead switched twice. Suspiciously, Cayard said, the second time was at the first windward mark when skipper Rod Davis and his crew made what Cayard described as three mistakes “uncharacteristic of the Kiwis.”

Earlier, Cayard was able to push Davis--the No. 2-ranked match racer in the world--over the starting line before the gun, causing New Zealand to start late and go to the left side of the course, where the Kiwis picked up a 30-degree wind shift that put them in front by 12 seconds at the mark.

Then, just before the mark, Cayard said, they delayed tacking on Il Moro’s wind, which “saved us two tacks (and) at least 30 seconds.”

Then New Zealand turned downwind and did a simple bear-away spinnaker set, although another 15-degree shift left dictated a jibe set (swinging the mainsail across the boat while setting the spinnaker to the left) as the best tactic to gain the better sailing angle to the leeward mark.

Cayard said, “The strange thing was that I heard Rod yell ‘jibe set’ just before that.”

Finally, the Kiwis raised their small, red spinnaker instead of a reaching gennaker also demanded by the conditions, and Il Moro passed them easily a couple of minutes later and sailed away.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for those guys,” Cayard said. “Those three mistakes in a row were uncharacteristic of the Kiwis.”

Cayard said one of his crew noticed a five-minute “face-to-face argument” among the New Zealand afterguard after the incident.

Why would the Kiwis sandbag this early in the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger trials?

“Maybe not to show off their downwind speed,” Cayard said.

Blake was not on the boat, and Davis was unavailable for comment.

Ironically, when Dennis Conner’s catamaran easily outsailed New Zealand’s big monohull in two lopsided Cup matches, the Kiwis accused him of sandbagging to keep the races close.

After Saturday’s opening win over the troubled Spirit of Australia, the Italians are 2-0, along with Pedro Campos’ Espana ’92 and Chris Dickson’s Nippon Challenge.

But Espana and Nippon have merely swapped victories against the lower-rated Tre Kronor of Sweden (0-2) and Challenge Australia (0-2), neither of which has shown competitive speed.

“We are sure the next races are going to be harder to win,” Campos said.

Other results Sunday: Espana over Tre Kronor by 4:22, Nippon over Challenge Australia by 8:52--about 1 1/4 miles--and Marc Pajot’s Ville de Paris (1-1) by 11:00 over Spirit of Australia (0-2).

The winds were light all day, from 5 to 7 knots, delaying the start by an hour and 15 minutes. They never did settle down to a steady direction but swung counter-clockwise 75 degrees from start to finish, southwest to southeast, toward Mexico.

For what it’s worth, the French sailed the 20-mile course faster than anyone in 3:19:51.

Following a day off today, racing resumes Tuesday through Thursday. The Japanese, led by Dickson, also will face more difficult tests against Il Moro, Ville de Paris and New Zealand.

Il Moro and New Zealand won’t meet again until the second round starting Feb. 13.