Nippon Upset Caps Strange Day : America’s Cup: Japanese top Il Moro. Challenge Australia wins first race of trials.

Nippon held on to beat Il Moro di Venezia by five seconds with both flying protest flags Sunday, but that was no surprise.

When those two race, the extraordinary is routine, the bizarre commonplace. Marks never seem to be where they’re supposed to be, and Sunday was worse. The America’s Cup moved into the Bermuda Triangle.

Wildly shifting winds brought not only rain but such startling developments as the first victory in these Louis Vuitton Cup challenger trials for Challenge Australia (1-15), which sent country cousin Spirit of Australia’s hopes of reaching the semifinals to the bottom by 2 minutes, 45 seconds.

For the first time in eight multi-national defenses since 1967, there will be no Australian boat in the final match.

“We’re devastated,” said skipper Peter Gilmour.

The day’s wind, varying from 10 knots to a wisp, was a nightmare for navigators and the race committee, which had to scramble to re-position marks all afternoon. First it came from the southeast, then swung 110 degrees to southwest, wound back to southeast, then finished from the northwest.

It was like sailing in a hall of mirrors.

But Ville de Paris found its way to run away from Sweden’s Tre Kronor by 22:32, the largest winning margin in the three rounds, and New Zealand led Espana ’92 by 52:59--that’s right, almost an hour-- in dying zephyrs before the Spaniards caught a jet stream to close to 17:46 on the final leg.

The results dropped Il Moro from first place into a tie for third with Ville de Paris, behind Nippon and New Zealand’s tie for first. All four now seem certain to qualify for the round-robin semifinals, but the racing is getting intense.

The race between Nippon and Il Moro, with their displaced skippers, was the closest of the trials so far. Paul Cayard’s Italians beat Chris Dickson’s Japanese by 11 seconds at the end of the second round, but that was was resailed the next day because of the mysterious moving mark, and Il Moro won again by 0:46.

In the first round Nippon was trailing when Il Moro, confused by a course change, sailed far enough toward the wrong mark to give Nippon the race. A similar problem developed Sunday.

The difference this time was that Il Moro knew where the mark was supposed to be. Cayard claimed that when a committee boat signaled a course change at the end of the third reaching leg two-thirds into the race, code flags gave the new compass heading as 280 degrees--approximately west. Instead, Cayard said, the heading was 230--southwest.

That’s a critical difference when the mark--an orange, 10-foot-diameter inflatable buoy--is 2.66 miles away. The Italians protested, hoping to have the race resailed.

Dickson also protested but lowered his flag after finishing first.

Il Moro crewman Enrico Chieffi said, “Once we lose the mark that was in the right place. This time we found the mark that was in the wrong place. At last we have improved.”

Dickson said the confusion lasted only about a minute until the two boats radioed the race committee to question the code flags and were told the correct heading.

The Japanese led throughout by as much as 1:55 and by 1:50 at the final turning mark. They seemed secure on the downwind run to the finish until a final, 45-degree shift twisted the sailing angles far enough to bring Il Moro almost alongside and forced everyone to switch from gennakers to upwind headsails.

A boat-length apart, they struggled to the finish line in tandem.

Dickson said, “I thought, maybe we’re not gonna win this one. But five seconds will do.”

On the defenders’ course, the America 3 stablemates, with rival Dennis Conner’s permission, sailed a best-of-three, short-course set for the day’s four points--and the newer America 3boat apparently played it straight, instead of throwing points to Defiant that would have moved the older boat into second place ahead of Conner’s Stars & Stripes.

America 3 swept two straight by 31 seconds and two minutes even. They had planned to sail a third race, but the wind died.