AMERICA’S CUP DAILY REPORT : CHALLENGER TRIALS : Il Moro di Venezia Loses Its Way
The wrong mark?
In the America’s Cup?
It was a navigational nightmare for Il Moro di Venezia, which had been impressive before losing its way on the third day the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger trials.
As shifting winds caused the race committee to twice change the position of the windward marks Tuesday, the Italians became confused, sailed to the wrong mark and lost for the first time. Chris Dickson’s unbeaten Nippon Challenge won by 3 minutes 55 seconds.
The wind reached an above-average 14 knots for San Diego but shifted treacherously for the sailors--65 degrees from northwest to east of north, then back 85 degrees to west.
It had all of the sailors guessing, and the Italians guessed wrong.
However, the international jury was meeting Tuesday night to consider a protest submitted by the on-the-water umpires against Nippon for flying its gennaker headsail without a spinnaker pole.
So Il Moro might still get the one point for the race, but neither that nor Il Moro’s brilliant start will make up for the mistake.
Il Moro’s skipper, Paul Cayard, tried to mask his pain with jokes: “Sandbagging,” he said. “We were sandbagging . . . Avoiding kelp?
“We had a problem,” Cayard said. “We were confused about where we were on the course.”
He never mentioned the Chieffi brothers--Tommaso, his tactician, or Enrico, his navigator, who share the responsibility for such things, because, Cayard said later, “the skipper has the ultimate responsibility.”
Dickson said Il Moro’s course caused confusion on his boat, too.
“I kept asking, ‘Are we going to the right mark? They said, ‘Absolutely yes. The Italians are going the wrong way.’ ”
In Tuesday’s other races, Spain (2-1) lost to Ville de Paris (2-1) by 6:24; Spirit of Australia (1-2) beat Sweden’s Tre Kronor (0-3) by 13:13--or nearly two miles of the 20-mile course--and New Zealand (2-1) won by 5:03 over Challenge Australia (0-3).
Today’s featured race matches Nippon and Ville de Paris. Also: New Zealand vs. Tre Kronor, Challenge Australia vs. Spirit of Australia and Espana vs. Il Moro.