Red Flag Goes Up for Il Moro : Challengers: Italians continue to protest Kiwis’ bowsprit, but the flag might as well symbolize a campaign in trouble.

Il Moro de Venezia sailed the entire race Thursday flying a red protest flag.

It turned out Italian skipper Paul Cayard was registering an informal complaint about the Kiwis’ controversial use of a bowsprit, though he decided not to file a formal protest after the race.

In view of their 2-minute, 26-second loss to New Zealand in the challenger finals, there’s some thought that in falling behind, 3-1, in the best-of-nine series, the Italians are getting desperate: Thumb through the rule book, find some loopholes, do what can be done via yachting jurisprudence, because on the water things are getting dismal.

Cayard insisted the red flag was a mark of his continuing displeasure with the Kiwis’ bowsprit, which has been cleared by the America’s Cup International Jury several times.

And Cayard said he will continue to fly the red flag through the rest of the series. The question is how much longer the series--which resumes Saturday after a lay day today--will last.

The Kiwis are coolly dispatching Il Moro, which now needs to win four of five races to advance to the America’s Cup finals.

“Our mood is all right, but we’d certainly like to be winning more races,” Cayard said. “We’d all be feeling better if we’d won the races yesterday and today but we didn’t.”

Asked if there was essentially nothing Il Moro can do to win the series now, Cayard replied, “There’s not nothing I can do about it. We’ve got at least five more to do something about it. But being objective . . . (The Kiwis) were going pretty nicely today.”

As for New Zealand’s use of a bowsprit for setting the spinnaker--which was ruled legal in early March--Cayard said his red flag “is basically registering the fact I still don’t like the way the bowsprit is being used. . . . I don’t like the way it is being used in this series, and I don’t think it will be used that way if they advance. It leaves a bad taste on this event. Every night on videos I see something that just bothers me. You’ll probably see (the red flag) every day.”

Cayard even offered to set up a display for the media explaining the complex points of his argument. But it’s all starting to sound like the desperate side grasping at straws.

Despite beating New Zealand at the start and nearly forcing the Kiwis into the starting buoy, Cayard acknowledged Rod Davis’ New Zealand crew outsailed the Italians on Thursday.

“I made a little mistake in judgment (at the start), I tacked to port, they were higher and faster on a starboard tack,” Cayard said. “The bottom line was . . . one boat found its niche today. All in all it was kind of a long, boring day.”

The businesslike Kiwis seem to like it that way, showing little excitement about winning, making little fuss about the latest bowsprit protest.

“Our feeling is we’ve been around this block three times, the jury’s made three rulings, we’re complying to the ruling and to us it’s a dead issue,” Davis said, adding he’s confident the Kiwis would win another hearing.

“Paul can have his class and show you his drawings,” Davis said. “I’ll leave it to Paul.”

Davis, trying to guide New Zealand into its first America’s Cup finals, seems to be worrying only about sailing--emphasis on worrying. Davis, who needs two more victories to advance, said he hasn’t written off the Italians, whose one victory this round was by one second.

“Write them off? I wouldn’t,” Davis said. “Did you watch the first three races? We’ve had tough races the whole way. They are not gonna roll over without a huge battle. We know Saturday we’re in for a dogfight.”

Lately, though, one of the dogs in the fight seems to be wearing a tighter collar.