Result Same Second Time Around: Il Moro Defeats Nippon Challenge : Sailing: Resail of Sunday’s race closes out second round.

The America’s Cup’s richest syndicate had managed no better than a split with the other three top challenge contenders through two rounds of the Louis Vuitton Cup trials and, frankly, people were beginning to wonder.

All that money, all that talent and all those boats didn’t add up to Italian Power until Il Moro di Venezia found one more important ingredient: 16 angry Italians.

Forced to resail Sunday’s 11-second victory over Nippon, Il Moro got the Japanese in a stranglehold at the start Monday, and this time the big red boat made it stick, by 46 seconds.

No meandering marks, no navigational nightmares, no adverse juries, no mercy.

“Let’s say we were plenty motivated for today’s race,” skipper Paul Cayard said. “We feel like the Japanese are the cat with nine lives. What do we have to do with these guys--shoot ‘em?”

In last month’s first round, Il Moro sailed so far toward the wrong mark that Nippon was able to come from behind and win--and also survive an Il Moro protest that Nippon’s gennaker wasn’t attached to its spinnaker pole on a reaching leg.

Then on Sunday Il Moro won by 11 seconds, but Sunday night the challengers’ international jury ordered the race resailed because a mark had drifted, forcing Nippon to sail “between 8 to 16 seconds” longer than Il Moro to reach it, the jury ruled.

Cayard said, “The first round they were found to have infringed a rule, but the jury decided that didn’t matter. Then this thing . . . they said, well, they probably lost so many seconds because the mark drifted, and they lost by only 11 seconds.

“Well, you know when you’re in a match race it’s not like when you’re in a (handicap) race trying to win on time. You sometimes spend a little bit of your lead to ensure the victory (by covering the opponent).

“I thought that was very shortsighted of the international jury to conclude that because they finished only 11 seconds behind they might have won the race. With as many shifts and different things that go on out there, that wasn’t a big deal.”

The jury offered to split the points, two and two, but neither side was crazy about that idea, least of all the Italians.

“We got the points we feel we were due,” Cayard said, “and the second round is over.”

The victory lifted Il Moro (11-3) past Nippon into second place with 29 points. New Zealand (13-1) has 34, Nippon (11-3) 26 and France (9-5) 21. But points escalate from four to eight points in the third round starting March 8.

“To me, (second place) is not worth much right now,” Cayard, a San Francisco native who’s lived in Italy for three years, said. “(For) morale it’s good. And maybe the sponsors like to see that.”

Cayard and Nippon skipper Chris Dickson wanted to start toward the better wind on the left side of the course, but Dickson forced Il Moro past the left end of the line.

As Nippon started and went left, Cayard had to circle back and dip below the Japanese just to reach the line. He wound up right of them--a bit of good fortune.

“The wind had gone 20 degrees to the left,” Cayard said, “but in stretching out to the right we were set up nicely when the wind filled back in from that direction. We got lucky and got in the right spot.”

Dickson agreed: “The first windward leg, there was more wind to the right and Il Moro protected the right, so we were always forced to sail in a little less air.”

Il Moro led by 1:20 at the first, windward mark, but Nippon closed to five seconds when the leeward mark stayed where it was supposed to be.

“We took advantage of some good wind shifts to close on the run,” Dickson said. “But the same thing applied on the second beat. There was more wind to the right and Il Moro protected the right.

The Japanese stayed within reach, waiting for the kind of break that had won four other races for them, but Il Moro didn’t falter.

Nippon tactician John Cutler said, “We were happy with the jury decision. We felt it was reasonably clear-cut that we’d been disadvantaged. We were happy to go out and have another go. It’s probably the best training we’ll every gonna get . . . an extra race that everyone else isn’t getting.”

Once it was over, Cayard agreed. “In the big picture, we’re happy to have raced a tough opponent one more time, which is good experience for all whole team.”

“The Japanese boat is much better than any of us thought it would be,” Cayard said. “Their crew and afterguard are doing a good job.”

Cutler said, “There appeared to be little difference between the two boats. They just covered us very well.”

The difference was, Cayard said, “We decided to be merciless.”