America’s Cup Challenger Trials Caught Up In Zephyr : Sailing: The length of the races reach record proportions because of the conditions.

A thousand sailors in Navy blazers can talk themselves blue about boat speed, but leave it to Mother Nature to get the last word in a yacht race.

One-on-one with Il Moro di Venezia and Ville de Paris was touted as the match of the day in an otherwise yawn-a-minute field on the fifth day of racing Thursday in Round 3 of the Louis Vuitton Cup. But even the French and Italians, who can stir it up with the best of them, were unable to make something from nothing.

How low and slow did the America’s Cup trials go?

In the lightest winds of the trials--they started at 6 knots and decreased to 2 knots--New Zealand finished 42 minutes, 38 seconds ahead of Challenge Australia. But that was respectable compared to the tortoise-and-hare race Nippon waged against Tre Kronor.

East Coast reporters worried about missing deadlines, and the press corps joked about moving the finish line for the Swedes as Nippon set a record against Tre Kronor with a 1-hour, 15-minute victory.

Although there are no records of all the Cup’s trial times, Nippon’s victory margin shattered the record established by Mischief in 1881, when the U.S. entry defeated Canada’s Atalanta by 38:54, a more sobering statistic considering that race covered 32 nautical miles, compared to the 20.03-mile course sailed Thursday off Point Loma.

Il Moro di Venezia skipper Paul Cayard broke a tie, but never a sweat as the Italians coasted to a 3:14 victory against Ville de Paris. Tied for third in the challenger standings going into the race, Il Moro di Venezia (14-5) is now in sole possession of third place, and bumped the French (12-7) down to fourth.

The Italians’ victory was a bit of a boost after an otherwise disappointing round. Il Moro di Venezia already has lost to Nippon and New Zealand, and its winning times against Tre Kronor and Challenge Australia were nothing to gloat about.

Which is the real Italian team?

“I’d like to think that today is the real Il Moro de Venezia,” Cayard said. “Obviously we have to work on our consistency a little bit, but both (Wednesday and Thursday) have been tricky. Winds have been light shifty and the boat that gets ahead can really stretch way ahead.”

The Italians covered the course in 3:52:06, setting a standard for the slowest winning time in these trials. Three of the day’s four challenger races posted slower winning times than the 3:45:11 set by Tre Kronor in Round 2.

That the matches were even conducted--conditions were more conducive to a tennis match than a yacht race--was somewhat remarkable. In their respective races, New Zealand and Nippon barely made it around the second mark under the 1:30:00 time limit. The Kiwis made it with 26 seconds to spare; Japan with a 24-second window. Finding comfort in this statistic was Louis Vuitton representative Bruno Trouble, who wrote in his nightly release: “This is very promising for Saturday’s match.”

For a sixth consecutive day, Nippon (16-3) and New Zealand (17-2) remained knotted at the top 66 points each. They face each other Saturday.

The day may have been embarrassing for Tre Kronor, but it had to be frustrating for Espana ’92. The Spanish syndicate put itself in a pickle by losing to Spirit of Australia by 11:11, and will be eliminated from advancing to the semifinals unless it wins its next two races, a tough proposition against the likes of Il Moro and Ville de Paris.

Spirit of Australia, winners the last two days, picked a fine time to become competitive. Iain Murray’s syndicate, along with Challenge Australia and the Swedish, were eliminated from semifinal consideration earlier this week.

Should similar wind conditions again prevail, Marc Pajot, Ville de Paris skipper, and Cayard had differing opinions on whether they should continue.

“When the wind is not strong enough there is a limit of time,” Pajot said. “But when we started the wind was OK. . . . Wind is part of the regatta and we must be ready to sail in such conditions.”

Cayard said the race committee should be very judicious in starting a race in such light wind, especially with the ensuing round worth so much.

“As the regattas get more and more important,” Cayard said, “within reason, I would appreciate giving more consideration to quality than quantity, or staying exactly on schedule.

“We have enough time between rounds. Yes, we could go ahead and race them. It’s even, it’s not to anyone’s advantage or disadvantage to race a race like this. But I would imagine more skippers would rather wait for a deciding race to have a better day. Today was probably the worst day we’ve raced in.”

In the defenders’ intramural race between America 3 and Defiant, Defiant took a 27-second lead in the second leg before succumbing to America 3 on the third leg and losing the race by 55 seconds.