America’s Cup Delayed so Boats Can Get Repairs

Yachts crunching together and cracking apart Saturday led to the postponement of the last races of the first round robin in the America’s Cup challenger series.

As other challengers fought aggressively--and expensively--to make up ground, Italy’s Prada extended its unbeaten run by defeating Young America, the last of the American favorites.

The only losses for AmericaOne and Young America have been at the hands of the Italians.

The two American boats were due to battle for second place today, the last day of racing scheduled for the first round robin.

But AmericaOne asked officials to delay further races until it could make repairs after America’s Cup veteran Dennis Conner’s boat Stars and Stripes clipped AmericaOne’s stern less then 2 minutes before the start of their race.

The struggling Swiss team Fast 2000 also asked for a delay after a bulkhead tore loose from the hull just minutes into their race against the French team.

Officials granted the requests and canceled further racing until Oct. 27.