America Taken Out of Its Cup
It ended with Paul Cayard alone at the wheel of AmericaOne, his one-man America’s Cup campaign over, and Francesco deAngelis drenched in champagne and surrounded by well-wishers, his run for glory still intact.
Cayard’s comeback in the America’s Cup challenger finals fell one step short of success today, when Prada, the silver-and-red Italian entry that dominated early racing, returned to form and seized the right to sail in the 30th Cup match.
The historic outcome means that for the first time in the 149-year history of the Cup, there will be no U.S. boat sailing for yachting’s top prize. It will be Italy versus Team New Zealand when challenger and defender square off Feb. 19.
Prada’s wire-to-wire win by 49 seconds in moderate winds and flat, sunlit seas on the Hauraki Gulf gave the Italians a 5-4 triumph in the winner-take-all finale of the Louis Vuitton Cup. It was a deceptively one-sided end to a two-week-long nautical slugfest in which momentum teetered and no lead seemed safe.
“I’m proud of our team,” a disappointed Cayard said on the tow back to port as AmericaOne bobbed in the wake of spectator boats mobbing Prada. “We did our job with half the time and half the money of Prada. We were the best U.S. effort.”
But fickle winds and a slight speed deficit did him in.
“The key was the long drag race out to the right [on the first leg],” Cayard said. “We were waiting for a right-hand wind shift, but the winds went left.”
Cayard’s hopes to sail in the Cup match for the third consecutive time sank when his gray-and-green racer could not match Prada’s superior upwind speed in 12- to 15-knot breezes. DeAngelis rounded the first turning mark 34 seconds ahead and sailed a flawless race for the second consecutive day to lift his team from the brink of elimination two days ago.
He made his stand in a harsh spotlight.
DeAngelis, 40, was under fire when he lost three straight to rival Cayard to bring Prada one loss from extinction. That streak boosted AmericaOne from a 1-3 deficit to a 4-3 lead, and Cayard, a five-time Cup veteran, brimmed with bravado as his team forged ahead. He said “the human factor” and his crew’s superior experience would keep Cup rookie deAngelis and his team of relative unknowns from coming back.
He was wrong.
On Saturday, deAngelis beat his more experienced rival in the prestart with aggressive maneuvers and took a 20-second lead at the first turning mark, then sealed the victory by luring Cayard into a foul on the second leg, Cayard’s third infraction of the series for failing to keep clear when the boats were close.
Today’s start also was contested bitterly with deAngelis emerging on top, just ahead as the gun fired. He forced Cayard to tack, then followed faultless tactics to stay alongside the swift San Francisco boat, letting Prada’s slim speed advantage work its magic.
Inch by inch, Prada gained control. Finally Cayard had to tack. Each time he challenged Prada, the Italian boat gained until Cayard was forced to follow meekly into the first mark.
Prada’s tactics from then on were flawless under three-time Olympic medalist Torben Grael, the Brazilian-born tactician and only non-Italian native on the boat. The gap between boats grew at each mark, from 34 seconds to 39 to 47 at the halfway point, to 52, then 1:06--an insurmountable edge as the boats turned downwind for the run to the finish.
Cayard, fund-raiser, syndicate chief, skipper and crew boss of the $32-million AmericaOne campaign, said of his schedule: “I probably had too much on my plate. I didn’t sail as well as I did in 1992 or 1995,” when he skippered Il Moro di Venezia, then Stars & Stripes in the Cup matches.
The win means for the third straight time, California-born designer Doug Peterson will have a boat in the match. His last two, with America3 in 1992 and Team New Zealand in 1995, won the trophy.