Conference unifix::sailing

    Last news show Russian and Croatian boats not on race due, I suppose,
    to well known problems in both countries.
    Would like (and I suppose you all join me) to wish both better luck
    for their future. We all will wait for the moment they will be in the
    race amongst the others.
    
    Bye.
    Arrigo
     

	
	Its Sunday here in New Zealand and I'm in my office as we have a small
problem going down here work wise. 
	But sitting here listening to the radio. New Zealand has just finished 
the race in front of Ville de Paris. So its first up win to NZ. In the other 
races Itay beat Spirit of Australia and spain where winning as where Japan.

	At 10:40 every day of the racing TV will be crossing to San Diego
to cover the start and give an update( looking for a TV for the office) so 
I watched the start of todays race and I'd say that France got the upper hand
out of the start hitting the pin after NZ tacked clear and they started on 
opposite tacks and france lead around the top and bottom marks for the first 
time. TV then crossed to the race live as they where going up the next beat. 
I wish the commentators would watch the moitors as they called that nz was 
just behind as they crossed in front and tacked on their face. They rounded 
the top mark 17 secs in front and thats when TV coverage finished.
	I believe they finished 2mins 40secs behind the iltay's boat who had 
a 5min headstart. 
Got to go work

Not that much TV coverage in France (sigh). The only results I got are of 
course "ville de Paris" related.

So they have lost their first match against NZ by 55 seconds. The wind was 
light and unstable, the French boat won the start and led at the first mark 
but NZ took the advantage during the reach. Marc Pajot's team protested 
against NZ boat about a boom supposed not to be in the rules but they finally 
were nonsuited.

The second match against "spirit of Australia" was easily won by 11 minutes.

. Pierre . in Valbonne

    Hy, Pierre. In Italy we get a pretty good coverage by
    TMC (TeleMonteCarlo). Are you able to get it there?
    Anyway, this last nigth they wasted a lot of time about
    teams and other bla-bla but just showed little sailing.
    Mainly they didn't let see the passage on mark 2 when
    Moro passed New Zealand and Cino Ricci (an Italian
    skipper commenting for TMC) told it had been something
    very high level manoeuvre.
    I didn't understand if the protest about NZ bowsprit has
    been rejected or not.
    Any news?
    
    Bye.
    Arrigo
    

    In Switzerland there is no coverage at all!
    
    Keep'em going! It is my only source of information!
    
    Thank you!
    
    Peter

    At present (by memory as the papers coverage in Ita is rubbish)
    
    1st day
    New Zealand    beats    France               by 55 "
    Moro 5         beats    Spirit of Australia  by 2'23"
    Nippon         beats    Sweden
    Spain          beats    Challenge Australia
    
    2nd day
    
    Moro 5         beats    New Zealand          by more or less 4'
    
    at present don't know the rest but I'll try.
    
    Ciao.
    Arrigo
    

>    2nd day
>    
>    Moro 5         beats    New Zealand          by more or less 4'
>
    and the Italians protested the NZ boat for using a bowsprit for setting
    their gennekers. This protest was thrown out, as it was the previous day
    when the French made a similar complaint. This will probably lead to
    other teams building bowsprits.
    
    The British designer Warwick Collins, who owns the worldwide Patent on
    Tandem keels ( i.e. 2 fins, one behind the other, with a gap between,
    joined at the bottom by a horizontal plate ) is currently trying to
    find out if any of the syndicates have infringed it, but is coming up 
    against considerable secrecy. More work for the overpaid San Diego
    lawyers.
    
    There is also no TV coverage in UK either, although I don't know about
    Satellite.
    
    Chris.
    

    Would someone of our courteous American guests update us, poor
    remote, night creatures, about the actual scores of challengers.
    
    As you can see we strongly miss our favourite drug...
    
    Ciao e grazie.
    A bientot et merci.
    Auf wiedersehen und danke.
    Hasta la vista y muchas gracias.
    Yassas ke efkaristo`.
    
    The poor Europeans.
    

    Challengers classement after race #2:
    
    Moro 5         (Ita)       2 points
    
    New Zealand    	(NZ)        1 point
    Nippon         	(JA)	       1 point
    Espana 92      	(SP)        1 point
    
    Ville de Paris 	(FR)        0 points
    3 Cronor       	(SW)        0 points
    Sp.of Australia     (AU)        0 points
    Chall.Australia     (AU) 	    0 points
    
    After one day rest on monday, today's races are:
    
    Moro v/s Nippon	Ville de Paris v/s Espana 92
    Sp.of Australia v/s 3 Cronor	New Zealand v/s Chall.Australia
    
    Good wind to all of them!
    
    Bye.
    Arrigo (who_is_afraid_he_will_go_late_to_bed_tonight).
    

    Speaking about sanbagging (see 1822):
    
    Paul Cayard stated to the press a potential sandbagging by NZ
    in the race v/s Mor as, he says, "...the 3 mistakes they made
    were too childish, unconceivable, thinking to Kiwi's high sailing
    skills...".
    
    A.
    

    Results race # 3.
    
    Nippon 		beats 		Moro 5
    Ville de Paris	  "		Espana 92
    Sp.of Australia	  "		3 Cronor
    New Zealand		  "		Chal.Australia
    
    Nippon v/s Moro 5 is "sub judice" as the race committee has protested
    Nippon for unproper manoeuvre of the gennaker.
    Anyway Cayar won the starting line and Moro was well ahead on mark # 3
    by 1'36". Due to a jump of wind mark # 4 has been moved but Moro 5 has
    gone on the old route loosing 5 mins. before realizing the mistake.
    Anyway she arrived 3'30" later.
    Many America Cups have been lost for this kind of mistakes.
    
    Bye. Arrigo
    

Hi Arrigo,

About TV coverage, our wellknown broadcast Thalassa (French channel 3) has 
put in place two small programmes (20mn) Tuesday evening and Friday noon 
called "Ticket bleu", it's not an overdose but better than nothing!-)

Pajot easily beat Espana 92 yesterday by 4', so he got two points (not one 
Arrigo!), I've heard about a Nippon win but don't know against who.

The NZ bowsprit problem is interesting, two boats have already protested but 
have been rejected, the fact is that a bowsprit has always been unauthorized 
in most of the gauge rules as it is considered as an outrigger, the only way 
to turn this is to use the spinnaker boom, and only if his maximum length can 
go behind the bow. The problem is it complicates a lot the manoeuvre. Now, if 
the AC gauge accept it, I'm sure it will appears on every boat in the next 
days. But one thing, this bowsprit must be kept removable as for the Open 
60fts or 6.50m (mini-transat).

Ciao,

. Pierre .

Still about Sandbagging, thanks to 1822.- explanations, I naively thought it 
was related with the sit out technique, and the weight of the crew (helmsman 
included, hum...;-) thinking about the fantastic "Sandbaggers boats", the 
funniest monohulls after the 6.50 (ok, it's a partial point of view!).
But I think these situations are unavoidable when you see how secrets are 
protected about the new technologies and design. For the first time, 
everybody start from scratch and feel the chances to be equal (money not 
included!).
I saw an interesting TV report on the French team showing every 
responsability into the huge people staff, one of them was the official spy 
and was spending his whole days to film and observe the maximum about other 
boats. How can you imagine after that good boats just show their maximum 
potential at a time where they don't care too much about the results?

. Pierre .

    Pierre, why two points? I did know that 1st R.R. assigned
    one point for each victory. Same as above for R.R. 2 and 3.
    Somewhere I've read 4 and 8 points, somewhere else 5 and 12.
    
    Maybe our American rivals can kindly explain us?
    
    Bye.
    A.
    

Arrigo,

I was just refering to your classement earlier where V de P had already 1pt.
so it makes two now, but if the sandbagging tactic (I like this one!) is 
effective, we souldn't pay too much attention to these first results, isn't 
it?

. Pierre .

<><><><><><><><>   VNS Edition : 2499    Thursday 23-Jan-1992   <><><><><><><><>
Subject: VNS #2501  Mon 27-Jan-1992

VNS UK SPORTS REPORT:                             [Ken Merrick, VNS Sports Desk]
=====================                             [Valbonne, France            ]
 

::: YACHTING
    The favourite among the challengers, Itlay's Il Moro Venezia, won it's
    first race by over 2 minutes. In the defender series, Defiant still leads
    by 3 points from Stars and Stripes.
 
    Full results:
    
    Challenger series - Il Moro Venezia bt Spirit of Australia by 2'23"
                        New Zealand bt Ville de Paris by 57"
                        Espana 92 bt Challenge Australia by 2'15"
                        Nippon bt Tre Kronor by 3'30"
 
 
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
 
    Permission to copy material from this VNS is granted (per DIGITAL PP&P)
    provided that the message header for the issue and credit lines for the
    VNS correspondent and original source are retained in the copy.

    Results of races on Jan., 29th.
    
    New Zealand 		beats 		Tre Kronor by 9'38"
    Nippon			  "		V.de Paris by 29"
    Spirit of Australia		  "		Ch.Austral.by 2'18"
    Moro 5			  "		Espana 92  by 7'25"
    
    Japs are strongly... lucky. Once they win because the Moro's
    tactician sleeps on the keyboard and doesn't see the right 
    mark; another time they win because the fore man of V.de P.
    lets the gennaker slip underwater and against the keel.
    
    Classements:
    Nippon		4 pts.
    Moro 5		3  "
    New Zealand		3  "
    Espana 92		2  "
    V.de Paris		2  "
    Sp.of Australia	1  "
    Chal.Australia	0  "
    Tre Kronor          0  "
    
    Today's races:
    							personal forecast
    
    New Zealand			v/s	Nippon  	New Zealand
    Spirit of Australia		v/s	Espana 92	Espana 92
    Ville de Paris		v/s	Tre Kronor	Ville de Paris
    Moro 5 			v/s	Ch.Australia	Moro 5
    
    Good luck and bye.
    Arrigo
    

    
    Bad Tactics? Asleep at the keyboard?
    
    This is sounding more like a DEC quarterly report!!!
    
    Hope we don't lose any more points...
    
    S_

    re. 17
    
    Thanks for the info. The local paper here is giving a minimal coverage
    to the races. Mostly just results, nothing else.
    
    Bye,
    
    Donald

    re. .19
    
    You're welcome. I'll try to meet the commitment.
    Bye.
    

    Today my official informer (The Sport Gazette) hasn't published
    anything new. Anyway:
    Moro 5 should have beaten Challenge Australia as this last had
    been retired from the last two trials, so Tommaso Chieffi (repla-
    cing Cayard on this lonely race) should be able to finish the race
    in the due time (hopefully).
    
    Missing news on the most important race (Nippon v/s NZ).
    
    Spy story: a frogman has been catched by NZ crew under the boat
    with a camera. Asked by the guys he answers that Moro's team has
    payed him 2,000 U.S. $$ for pictures of their keel. Moro's chiefs
    reject. It seems a little bit ridiculous i.m.o. but... one never knows.
    
    Anything else for the moment; I have to wait 7.30 p.m. (Italy time)
    to watch TMC Sportissimo and get yesterday's results.
    
    Bye to all and specially to Pierre as, next Sunday we'll have to see
    Moro 5 v/s Ville de Paris. That'll be the match!
    
    Arrigo
    

Some 30 January results:
 
    V.de Paris beats Tre Kronor by 5', and...

    Nippon retired from the race against New Zealand!
 
About the mishandled manoeuvre of V.de Paris against Nippon the day before, I 
heard it was in the last reach where Pajot was leading by 1'40", the crew 
decided to attempt a "peeling gybe" supposed to be most dreaded manoeuvre on 
an ACC, with the "kiwi drop" (the two things never discussed at the "ACDC", 
the America's Cup Drinking Club!). The halyard seemed to be locked somewhere 
and finally, the gennaker falled too quickly, seeing that, the crew cut the 
sheets to let the sail going away in the water, but no chance, keel and 
rudder decided to hide themselves into it! It took 4' to clean the situation 
but they finally reduced their gap by 30" on the finishing line.

>>    Bye to all and specially to Pierre as, next Sunday we'll have to see
>>    Moro 5 v/s Ville de Paris. That'll be the match!

I hope so! I'm usually not a chauvinist guy, but as I've met Marc Pajot a few 
times and know the job wich has been made with a relatively tight budget, you 
should understand how I feel! But I'm impressed by the Italian 
professionalism too (I live in Antibes, French Riviera, where most of the 
maxis like Passage to Venice, Il Moro, Longobarda, Safilo, Vanitas are going 
into winter quarters, so I can check by myself!).

Well Arrigo, Italy or France I don't mind, in both cases the cup will go into 
Mediteranean ;-))

Ciao,

. Pierre .

    Pierre:
    
    touch wood & cross your finger & make horns with your fingers
    etc, etc.
    
    Only thinking what you stated (& I don't dare even to think)
    could be the worst kind of unluck to the matter.
    
    (BTW: think the problems of a TV Cup coverage from Japan...)
    
    Anyway, thanks for the info.
    Bye.
    A.
    

    
    >> Nippon retired from the race against New Zealand!
    
    any details?
    

	Sorry Arrigo... 27" only, but 27" ahead! ;-)

	. Pierre . who only heard it was a great race (V de Paris/Il Moro)

    RE-.2
    
    Broken rudder, I believe.
    
    

    VdP v/s M5 : only 24.4 - really great race!
    
    Nippon v/s NZ : yes, broken rudder (a small stuff, 5$ worth, broken
                    caused the problem. Cris Dickson was about to weep).
    
    Anyway: Round Robin #2 starts on Feb, 13th.
    At present: Nippon / New Zealand		6 points
    		VdP    / Moro 5			5 points
    		
    I don't remeber the other results.
    
    It looks like the potential semi-finals.
    
    Bye all.
    

    Pierre (or someone else) pls:
    
    has the 2nd regatta between VdP & Moro5 raced or not?
    
    If yes, results, pls!
    
    Bye.
    A.
     

    Round Robin # 2 - 1st day races:
    
    Moro 5			beats		Tre Kronor  (13'32")
    Nippon                        "		Ville de Paris (1"42")
    New Zealand 		  "		Spirit of Australia (12'12")
    Espana 92			  "		Challenge Australia (5'46")
    
    		      2nd day races:
    
    New Zealand 		beats		Espana 92
    Nippon 			  "		Tre Kronor
    Moro 5			  "		Ville de Paris
    Spirit of Australia		  "		Challenge Australia
    
    Classements after 2nd race:
    
    New Zealand / Nippon	pts. 14
    Moro 5			     13
    Sp.of Australia		      7
    Espana 92			      6
    V.de Paris			      5
    Tre Kronor			      1
    Ch.Australia		      0
    
    Don't know about the other races but Moro v/s VdP has been thrilling!
    Pajot wins the start forcing Cayard to early start, so gaining 30";
    Moro's crew has shown a real lust of victory as they've succeeded
    in the last leg to pass and gain 12". The game is open, Pierre!
    
    Bye all!
    Arrigo
     

    Thanks Arrigo for the result. As usual still not much here in Texas in
    the newspaper. Races today 02/18/92 could mean something.
    

    L.A. Times Daily Report 2/18
    
    Italy scored an 11 second, come from behind win over France Monday. 
    Paul Cayard, Il Moro di Venezia's skipper, said after the victory,
    "Believe it or not, I was thinking to myself up the last beat, even
    though we were still behind, that I was having a helluva good time.  I
    was starting to think sailing was really a boring sport."
    
    France's 25 second win over Il Moro last month was the closest previous
    race of these trials.  But Northwest breezes building to a solid 14
    knots brought most of the big boats to life.
    
    Halfway down the last leg Ville de Paris was holding off Il Moro when
    the French lost a line out of their spinnaker pole and a snap-shackle
    on their spinnaker sheet opened, forcing them to jibe away.  When they
    jibed back, Cayard was almost alongside and ready to make his move.
    
    Cayard worked Il Moro onto Paris' wind and swept past with ease.  Pajot
    counter attacked, so close that Il Moro claimed his spinnaker brushed
    the Italian mainsail.  Five minutes later Il Moro finished a boat
    length ahead.
                 

    Round Robin # 2 - 3rd race.
    
    New Zealand 		beats	Nippon			by 2'21"
    Espana 92			  "	Tre Kronor		retired
    Ville de Paris 		  "	Spirit of Australia	by 1'48"
    Moro di Venezia 5		  "	Challenge Australia	by 6'57"
    
    Classements
    
    New Zealand			points 18
    Moro di Venezia 5		  "    17
    Nippon			  "    14
    Espana 92			  "    10
    Ville de Paris		  "     9
    Spirit of Australia		  "     7
    Tre Kronor			  "	1
    Challenge Australia		  "	0
    
    Today the great match: Moro v/s New Zealand.
    
    Seymour, pls, as I'm afraid of no TV coverage for this event,
    your comment like the one about Moro v/s VdP will be enormously
    appreciated.
    
    Bye all.
    Arrigo
    

    L.A. Times Daily Report 2/19
    
    The America's Cup challengers are sailing in opposite directions, and
    it has nothing to do with wind shifts.
    
    "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize that New Zealand,
    the Italians, Japanese and French are looking like the top four at the
    moment," New Zealand tactician David Barnes said Tuesday.
    
    A victory over Nippon by 2 minutes 21 seconds put new Zealand (9-1)
    atop the heap midway through the second round, followed by Nippon
    (8-2), Italy (8-2), and France (6-4).
    
    The gulf separating them from the lower four - Spain (4-6), Spirit of
    Australia (4-6), Sweden (1-9) and Challenge Australia (0-10) - only
    figures to get wider.
    
     A close race between New Zealand and Nippon became a Kiwi cruise when
    they overtook the previous match between Spain and Sweden at the first
    mark.  New Zealand skipper Rod Davis steered through the traffic
    safely, but Nippon skipper Chris Dickson got stuck in Spain's distrubed air
    and never escaped.
    
    Don  

    Round Robin #2 - 4th race.
    
    New Zealand			beats	Moro 5			by 1'16"
    Nippon			  "	Challenge Australia	   3'33"
    Spirit of Australia		  "	Tre Kronor		   2'52"
    Ville de Paris		  "	Espana 92		   3'07"
    
    Classements:
    
    New Zealand			points	22
    Nippon			   "	18
    Moro 5			   "	17
    Ville de Paris		   "	13
    Spirit of Australia		   "	11
    Espana 92			   "	10
    Tre Kronor			   "	 1
    Challenge Australia		   "	 0
    
    Moro 5 has had hard time by the Kiwis. Cayard has won the start
    but after only 1 mile (maybe due to a shift of wind) Rod Davis
    was 3 lengths ahead in 10 knots wind. Moro 5 wasn't slower as 
    she turned Mark # 1 only 8" after New Zealand but on the 2nd
    leg has lost 10" else. On 3rd leg they've done something wrong 
    in the tacking duel so wasting 29" for total 47" on Mark #3.
    On the 3 following legs New Zealand must have used an over-boost
    (and on 6th leg Moro 5 has blown a gennaker so they've had to 
    lift a guy topmast to cut away the pieces) so she has turned the
    mark 1'15" ahead and maintaining on the last two legs.
    
    Hope this race will help to learn something.
    
    As a sportsman I MUST say "Bravi!" to the Kiwis (but the game
    is still open).
    
    Bye all.
    Arrigo
     

I am now a lucky French man! Our TV coverage twice a week is particulary 
great, and last tuesday night, it was like a one hour dream, with two races 
in real time, superb images from the mast foot on V.de Paris, New Zealand and 
Il moro, where nothing can escape from your eyes during a tack or a rounding 
mark!
I was specially impressed by the Rod Davis crew on New Zealand, they were 
talking a lot, the reporter was commenting about the mysterious keel/rudder 
of the kiwi boat and we could see the helmsman during 30 seconds or more 
acting on the main wheel and sometimes on the second one, apparently when the 
wind was increasing. 
Some beautiful images too from helicopters, specially the one where Il moro 
on a port, passes at half a hand behind the French boat, wow! 
I followed too the main actions of the Italian revenge, Marc Bouet, the 
French tactician who takes the helm for each start, pushed Paul Cayard to cut 
the line too early, so they lost 31 seconds, the whole race was a pure match 
racing where Pajot was defending his advantage, both had a few problems 
(spinnaker in the water for Il Moro) but on the last leg, VdeP broke a 
snap-shackle on a spinnaker sheet giving to Il Moro the chance to take the 
advantage of 11 seconds on the finishing line. Raoul Gardini himself was the 
17th crew, and seemed to enjoy that race! Pajot was of course a little bit 
upset but though very confident for the future.
We got some other analysis, interviews, and so on, always very interesting.

The more it goes, the more I like it!

. Pierre .

    L.A. Times Daily Report 2/20
    
    Winless and now almost hopeless in their quest of the America's Cup,
    the sailors of Challenge Australia can hardly relate to front-running
    New Zealand, which defeated perhaps its strongest rival, Il Moro di
    Venezia, by 1 minute 16 seconds Wednesday.
    
    That was supposed to be the most interesting match of the day, and it
    was until the Kiwis broke away to stay on the second upwind leg for
    their 10th victory in 11 races -- their only loss coming against Il
    Moro in the first round.
    
    Nippon skipper Chris Dickson, leading Challenge Australia by 2:15 at
    the first reach mark halfway through the 20-mile race, suddenly turned
    his boat head into the wind and stopped.
    
    The first report was that two crewmen had fallen overboard.  Actually,
    grinders Taketaro Suizi and Matsukichi Nishikawa stripped and dived
    under the boat to remove a huge clump of kelp from the keel.
    
    The operation took about four minutes, as Challenge Australia sailed
    past, building a lead of 1:32 and 1:29 at the next two marks.  As the
    Australian crew dropped its gennaker headsail approaching the last
    leeward mark, the sail became wedged, fell into the water and wrapped
    around the keel.  The Australians gave back the four minutes and more,
    and Nippon was home free by 3:33.
    
    Don

    Challeng Australia has just withdrawn from the Lois Vitton Cup Regatta.

    L.A. Times Daily Report 2/21
    
    Italy's Il Moro di Venezia used an experimental lightweight sail to
    defeat Spirit of Australia Thursday as the top four boats of Round 2
    scored lopsided victories in the Challenger Trials.
    
    Il Moro made sailing history by setting for the first time an
    experimental sail made of carbon-fiber fabric.  They finished 7:48
    ahead.
    
    Syd Fischer, head of the Challenge Australia syndicate, has offered
    rival countryman Iain Murray and his Sperit of Australia syndicate the
    use of his sail loft and laser sail cutter.  Murray has been having his
    sails made in Australia and flown to San Diego.  Murray, who will meet
    with Fischer today, has neither accepted nor refused the offer.
    
    A replica of the schooner America, for which the America's Cup is
    named, is scheduled to sail into San Diego Bay this afternoon.  The
    101-foot yacht, owned by Ramon Mendoza of Madrid, Spain, will remain in
    San Diego through the America's Cup match in May, said spokeswoman
    Marisa Valivona-Raynor.  The black schooner was built in 1967.
    
    Don

>    Il Moro made sailing history by setting for the first time an
>    experimental sail made of carbon-fiber fabric.  They finished 7:48
>    ahead.
    
 	This has been hyped up a bit. Carbon sails have been tried before,
    	back in the early '80s, but without sucess. These were entirely
    	carbon, on a mylar film, whereas Il Moro's sails were Kevlar and
    	carbon mix, presumably on Mylar also.
    
    	The reasons why the 80's experiment failed were that the carbon 
    	was too brittle, and ( it was on an offshore yacht ) that it was
    	impossible to trim at night ( they were black ) and when it rained, 
    	gallons of black water ran off.
    	
    	Chris
    

    Round Robin # 2 - 6th race:
    
    Nippon			beats	Spirit of Australia by 12'21"
    Il Moro di Venezia 5	  "	Espana 92	     " 13'38"
    Tre Kronor			  "	Challenge Australia  "  6'59"
    New Zealand			  "	Ville de Paris	     "     8" (!)
    
    		      7th race:
    
    Il Moro di Venezia 5	  "	Nippon		     "    10" (!)
    New Zealand			  "	Challenge Australia  "  6'46"
    Ville de Paris		  "	Tre Kronor	     "	2'02"
    missing result: Espana 92 v/s Spirit of Australia
    
    Classement (not complete):
    New Zealand			points 	34
    Il Moro di Venezia 5	   "	29
    Nippon			   "	26
    
    missing other results.
    
    Round Robin 3 is supposed to start on March, 8th upto 19th.
    
    Bye all.
    Arrigo
    

>>                        -< and the 2nd too is over... >-

Not exactly, Arrigo! The last race between Il Moro and Nippon as been 
cancelled following a protest from Nippon about a drifted buoy.
This match will be re-run today.

>>    Round Robin # 2 - 6th race:
>>    New Zealand                   "     Ville de Paris       "     8" (!)

V de Paris is now used to make the spectacle and keep the suspense alive, I 
only hope the third round Robin will just make him to be a few seconds 
"before" NZ or Il Moro!
During this race, and as usual, Marc Bouet, the French tactician succeeded to 
push NZ off the line and took the lead. Not very long, a non-anticipated wind 
shift will give 3' to NZ at the first mark. But V de P had a better speed on 
the reach (!) and was able to reduce this gap. On the last reach, NZ made a 
mistake and lost his gennaker, but the "bell" (finish) was just on the NZ 
4side! Sigh...

>>    missing result: Espana 92 v/s Spirit of Australia

Espana won.
 
    Classement:			points	    won races

    New Zealand                 34		13
    Nippon                      26		10   > One race 
    Il Moro di Venezia 5	25		11   > missing
    Ville de Paris		21		 9
    Espana			14		 5
    Spirit of Australia		11		 5
    Tre Kronor		 	 5		 2
    Challenge Australia		 0		 0

Wait for the TV report, tuesday evening.

Salut,

. Pierre .

    L.A. Times Daily Report 2/23,24
    
    Front-running New Zealand, its red gennaker hanging in shreds, held on
    by the last gasp of air Saturday to beat France's onrushing Ville de
    Paris by eight seconds--about a boat length--in the closest of 65
    America's Cup races in the last five weeks.
    
    Another boat length past the finish line, Ville de Paris was in front.
    
    And Il Moro di Venezia, slowed by kelp on its keel as Espana '92 closed
    in, twice sent grinder Andrea Madafarri diving under the boat.  As
    skipper Paul Cayard luffed into the wind at 3 knots of speed, Madafarri
    swam underneath from bow to stern, pulling off weeds, climbed up the
    transom, ran to the front and did it again.
    
    Four times misfortune has befallen boats leading Nippon in the first
    two rounds, allowing the Japanese (11-2) to come from behind and win.
    
    During Sunday's 11-second loss to Il Moro di Venezia that concluded the
    second round, there was the mysterious meandering mark that gave the
    Japanese yet another chance to undo a defeat.
    
    The challengers' international jury decided late Sunday night to re-run
    the race at 12:20 p.m. today.
    
    Nippon was trailing Il Moro by about four boat lengths at the end of
    the second leg when observers noticed the 10-foot-diameter yellow
    inflatable mark was drifting with the 12-knot wind, like a big balloon,
    nearly into the spectator fleet.
    
    Normally, they remain anchored to the bottom, which is a problem off
    Point Loma, where the water is so deep.  This mark was set in about 800
    feet and broke loose when a knot came undone 130 feet down.
    
    Il Moro rounded it in one position and turned back upwind, but by the
    time Nippon got there it had drifted farther, forcing the Japanese to
    chase it twice that additional distance to get back to the point where
    Il Moro had rounded.
    
    After studying a videotape, Nippon tactician Erle Williams estimated
    the difference in drift at 150 to 300 feet.  However, Il Moro spokesman
    Stefano Roverti said it was only 15 to 20 feet.
    
    Don

    Round Robin # 2 - Race no. 7.1
    
    Il Moro di Venezia 5 	beats 	Nippon			by 46"
    
    Final classement after Round Robin # 2:
    
    New Zealand				points 	34
    Il Moro di Venezia 5		   "	29
    Nippon				   "	26
    Ville de Paris			   "	21
    Espana 92				   "	14
    Spirit of Australia			   "	11
    Tre Kronor				   "	 5
    Challenge Australia			   "	 0
    
    Bye all.
    Arrigo
    

    L.A. Times Daily Report 2/25
    
    The America's Cup's richest syndicate had managed no better than a
    split with the other three top challenge contenders through two rounds
    of trials.  All that money, all that talent and all those boats didn't
    add up to dominance until Il Moro di Venezia found one more important
    ingredient: 16 angry Italians.
    
    Forced to resail Sunday's 11-second victory over Nippon, Il Moro got
    the Japanese in a stranglehold at the start Monday, and this time the
    big red boat made it stick, by 46 seconds.
    
    No meandering marks, no navigational nightmares, no adverse juries, no
    mercy.  "Let's say we were plenty motivated for today's race," skipper
    Paul Cayard said.  "We feel like the Japanese are the cat with nine
    lives.  What do we have to do with these guys--shoot them?"
    
    Nippon tactician John Cutler said: "We were happy with the jury
    decision.  We felt it was reasonably clear-cut that we'd been
    disadvantaged.  We were happy to go out and have another go.  It's
    probably the best training we'll ever get ... an extra race that
    everyone else isn't getting."
	
    Don

    Round Robin # 3 - 1st race results:
    
    Il Moro di Venezia 5	beats	Challenge Australia 	by 8'03"
    Ville de Paris		  "	New Zealand		 "  1'21"
    Nippon			  "	Spirit of Australia	 "  4'45"
    Espana 92			  "	Tre Kronor		 "  3'49"
    
    		      2nd race results:
    
    Nippon			beats 	Il Moro di Venezia 5	by     5"
    Challenge Australia		  "	Spirit of Australia	 "  2'45"
    Ville de Paris		  "	Tre Kronor		 "  8'42"
    New Zealand			  "	Espana 92		 " 32'18"
    
    Note: protest by Il Moro v/s Nippon "sub judice".
    
    Classement at moment:
    
    New Zealand			points	42
    Nippon			   "	42
    Ville de Paris		   "	37
    Il Moro di Venezia 5	   "	37
    Espana 92			   "	22
    Spirit of Australia		   "	11
    Challenge Australia		   "	 8
    Tre Kronor			   "	 7
    
    Today: layday.
    
    Bye all.
    
    Arrigo
    

    L.A. Times Daily Report 3/9
    
    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.
    
    Wildly shifting winds brought not only rain, but the first victory
    during the challenger trials for Challenge Australia (1-15), which
    ended Spirit of Australia's hopes of reaching the semifinals.  For the
    first time in eight multinational defenses since 1967, there will be no
    Australian boat in the final match.
    
    Ville de Paris beat Sweden's Tre Kronor by 22:32, the largest winning
    margin of the three rounds, and New Zealand led Espana '92 by 52:59 in
    dying zephyrs before the Spaniards caught a jet stream to close to
    17:46 on the final leg.
    
    The race between Nippon and Il Moro 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 resailed the next
    day because of a moving mark, and Il Moro won again by :46.
    
    During 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 giving a
    new heading of 280 degrees--approximately west.  Instead, Cayard said,
    the heading actually was 230--southwest.
    
    That's a critical difference when the mark--an orange, 10-foot-diameter
    inflatable bouy--is 2.66 miles away.  The Italians protested, hoping to
    have the race resailed.  Dickson also protested, but lowered his flag
    after finishing first.
    
    Don                                                

    Today's races (3rd day):
    
    New Zealand			v/s	Spirit of Australia
    Espana 92			 "	Challenge Australia
    Il Moro di Venezia 5	 "	Tre Kronor
    Ville de Paris		 "	Nippon
    
    I've read in the press that the challengers racing jury has
    been strongly criticized due to the strange decisions they
    often issue (see the sail from Espana, the change of marks
    and the different answers to the same question in the two races
    that Moro 5 lost by Nippon). Don't want to be told I'm for my
    part but it seems to me that some more professionalism should
    be a must for the jury of the most important sailing event in the
    world.
    Hope Ville de Paris will be more lucky today than Moro 5 two
    days ago.
    
    Bye all.
    Arrigo
    

My chauvinism is much tempted those last days!
The Ville de Paris victory against NZ last saturday, on the level, just 
showed that the French team has reduced his preparation delay to nothing and 
has now a good tool and a good crew just able to face the lead trio (with 
half the Italian budget!).

I just watched very short sequences of that race and hope to see much more 
tonight at the bi weekly report, for once, the New Zealand crew mishandled 
one manoeuvre where V de P didn't, the wind was good and the start quite 
spectacular with images of one boat taken from the other.

An article states that the keel shapes of the different challengers are quite 
known enough now, so the NZ keel "should" looks like this:
		_____________________________________
		    \  \ \              /  / /
		     \  \ \            /  / /
		      \  \ \          /  / /
		       \  \ \        /  / /
		        \  \ \      /  / /
		         \  \ \    /  / /
		          \  \ \  /  / /
			------------------
		      <	     lead bulb     >
			------------------

No rudders, just two big trimmers! David Barnes may have a big training to 
get used to those things!

I agree with Arrigo, the challenger's jury is not as clear as he should be, 
on that subject, after having accepted the NZ bowsprit (following the French 
and Italian protest), this one has been actually forbidden by the ACC jury!

>>    Hope Ville de Paris will be more lucky today than Moro 5 two
>>    days ago.
Moi aussi!

. Pierre . 

    The twin keel/trim tab configuration is turning out to be
    quite a handfull.  The boat loses a lot of directional
    stability, from reports I've read.  Fast in the tank, I guess,
    but it doesn't appear to be the break-through expected.
    Now if they were no limit on moving appendages...

Its 11-March 10:30 NZT and I'm watching tv live.

	Dennis Conners mast has just fallen down.

	Nippon is leading france up the  beat. 23 secs at the first mark
and 9secs after the second mark.
	Go Chris!!!!

	NZ is leading the sipirt of Oz 2 mins at the sixth mark.

	The finish is played here at about 14:00 today.
Regards
Revel

I've too seen in real time, 11.30 pm my time, some views of the 3rd races, a 
quite strong wind for the ACC (18 knts) has caused a few damages (Conners 
lost his mast, some challengers a few sails).
If the results of NZ and Il Moro are logical, the match between Ville de 
Paris and Nippon was more interesting. Bouet, once again won the start by 13 
seconds, but the Nippon boat speed seemed to be better to winward in this 
strong breeze, Chris Dickson and his half NZ crew is always well inspired in 
his tactical choices too, Marc Pajot was able to recover the lost time on the 
reach but lost one spinnaker and then a genoa head broke. Once again, Nippon 
let the bad luck for the others, but the fact is that even if V de P has 
improved his potential between the second and the third round robin, the 
Japanese boat is no longer fragile and has much increased his average speed. 
But of course, those windy conditions are not the average of the San Diego 
bay, specially in May.
The good news is that, contrary to what specialists said about the new ACC 
rule, the best boats average speed is quite the same and the differences very 
thin.

                      3rd race results:
 
    Nippon                      beats   Ville de Paris          by    45"
    New Zealand                  "      Spirit of Australia
    Espana 92                    "      Challenge Australia
    Il Moro di Venezia 5         "      Tre Kronor
 
 
    Classement:
 
    New Zealand                 points  50
    Nippon                         "    50
    Il Moro di Venezia 5           "    45
    Ville de Paris                 "    37
    Espana 92                      "    30
    Spirit of Australia            "    11
    Challenge Australia            "     8
    Tre Kronor                     "     7
 

A plus tard,

. Pierre .

    Round Robin # 3 - 4th race:
    
    Ville de Paris 		beats	Challenge Australia	by 12'44"
    Nippon 			  "	Espana 92		
    New Zealand			  "	Il Moro di Venezia 5	 "  5'01"
    Spirit of Australia		  "	Tre Kronor		
    
    Classement:
    
    New Zealand / Nippon	points	58
    Moro 5 / V.de Paris		  "	45
    Espana 92			  " 	30
    Spirit of Australia		  "	19
    Challenge Australia		  "	 8
    Tre Kronor			  "	 5
    
    Comments:
    
    bad wake-up for me! Anyway I've read in the press some infos on
    the race between NZ and Moro and I can affirm that, due to wind
    type, I would be surprised if Moro had won. IMO it's easy to see
    that NZ has been designed mainly to develop the max speed in very
    light airs but, sure, the Moro team must do something in order to
    improve the crew performance, mainly on the tattic and navigation
    side. The history of the Cup is full of faster boats that didn't
    succeed because their crews weren't able to perform at the required
    level but, on the other side don't forget that Chris Dickson won 38
    races at Perth, 1987, but it was Stars & Stripes that beat them and 
    re-gained the Cup from the Aussies.
    
    But it's anyway hard to read on the press:
    
    "MORO: what a defeat by New Zealand!"
    
    Bye all.
    
    A_sorry_Arrigo.
    

The analysis I've seen about the NZ / Il Moro race tells that NZ was clearly 
faster into the wind and headed better, the problem was that this tendancy 
was not reversed wind astern. The Italian boat used this famous carbon made 
genoa during the first leg but changed it to a classic kevlar one until the 
end, some people talk about "the Montedison bluff"! 

The question is to understand why the winner of the world championship with 
his 3rd boat (ahead of NZ with his 3rd boat) has a lack of speed with his 5th 
boat (against the 4th NZ boat) with weather conditions true to the average in 
SDiego. Anyhow, challengers agree the Italian team is able to react quickly 
enough to reverse this bad period, in a few hours for example, against the 
Frenchies! (I will still sleep late tonight).

During that race, Raoul Gardini was the 17th crew, and nobody was able to 
give the exact number of smoked cigarettes :-)

If NZ and Nippon are qualified for half final, whatever the next results, Il 
moro, V de P and Espana must fight for the two last places. We will be fixed 
in the 5th one:

	Espana 92	vs	Spirit of Oz
	New Zealand	"	Challenge Oz
	Tre Kronor	"	Nippon
	Ville de Paris	"	Il Moro de Venezia

Heard an interview of Bill Koch yesterday: "...Of course, the best people 
will be choosen to crew the defender boat..."
and later: "My goal is to steer the boat"
Two other helmsmen of the Koch team (Buddy Melges and..?) will say later, the 
exact same words!
Question: Who is making the choice? ;-)

Bye,

. Pierre .

    Round Robin # 3 - Final classements.
    
    Nippon			points	82
    New Zealand			   "	74
    Il Moro di Venezia 5	   "	69
    Ville de Paris		   "	61
    
    these 4 boats will race for the half-finals.
    
    Espana 92			points	30
    Spirit of Australia		   "	27
    Tre Kronor			   "	13
    Challenge Australia		   "	 8
    
    On March, 29th, should start the half-finals races. The score
    will be at the best of three races for each boat; in case of
    parity the points got in the three Round Robins will make the
    difference.
    Now all the teams have 2 weeks during wich they'll analyse the
    results and test all the "secret weapons" they've studied in the
    past months ... and we'll see.
    
    Bye all.
    
    Arrigo
    

    < The score will be at the best of three races for each boat...
    
    I've got a doubt about it: is it correct?
    
    I mean: does each boat race three times against each of the others?
    (this should be the best of three) i.e.
    
    A > B  -  B > A  -  A > B  3
    A > C  -  C > A  -  A > C  3
    A > D  -  D > A  -  A > D  3
    B > C  -  C > B  -  B > C  3
    B > D  -  D > B  -  B > D  3
    C > D  -  D > C  -  C > D  3
    
    for total of              18 races (potential 9 points max per 2 boats)
    
    Or is it like this:
    
    A > B  -  A > C  -  A > D   3
    B > A  -  B > C  -  B > D   3
    C > A  -  C > B  -  C > D   3
    D > A  _  D > B  -  D > C   3
    
    for a total of             12 races ( potential 6 points max for 2
    boats).
    
    Thanks in advance.
    Bye. A.
    

The Monday, 16-MAR, Boston Globe describes the challengers' semifinals format 
as a best five (5) of nine (9) race series. The pairings of the four
semifinalists will be determined by a blind draw.

This was different than the round robin format of the earlier rounds.

	Each of the 4 semi-finalist race each other 3 times. the top 2 race
best of 7 to find the challenger.

cheers
revel

    Grazie, Revel! It'll be a lot of fun (and a thriller, sure).
    
    Ciao.
    
    Arrigo
    

    As I'll be out of office for the whole next week and then
    far from my usual sources of infos I apologize in advance
    for not being able to carry on the Cup conferenced coverage.
    
    At the same time I "beg" someone to do it for me!
    
    I can't stand to stay all the week without any fresh news
    about semi-finals!
    
    Tks & bye all.
    
    A.
    

    
    	Will try, but things will be a little delayed starting this saturday 
    we are supposed to get live coverage of the races.  But they run during
    my normal work schedule so I have to tape and replay.
    
    
    Forrest

    <    my normal work schedule so I have to tape and replay.
    
    Oh, lucky guy!
    
    Grazie e ciao.
    

    	New Zeland over Japan by about 1:43 winds light and seas relatively
    flat 2' seas.  New Zeland on last leg started with a spinnaker with a
    rip, it eventually parted and they had to do a fast  change.  The crew
    work was smooth and they lost maybe a boat length or so.


    	Italy over France by 1:24 France made up about 1 minute on the last
    leg.  The coverage focused more on New Zeland Japan.


    Forrest

    I think today's races will tell the possible truth.
    
    Moro v/s Nippon (the two "strong winds" boats)
    
    New Zealand v/s Ville de Paris (the two "light winds" boats)
    
    The final confirmation will be, IMO, on tomorrow's races
    in which we'll see Moro v/s NZ and VDP v/s Nippon.
    
    After that the games should be over.
    
    Bye to all and special tks to Forrest.
    
    Arrigo
    

    
    	I going to have to let you down.  The television coverage cut off
    before the challenger races finished.  I waited for their lat night
    wrap up show and no coverage oh well have to sleep fast tonight.  When
    they cut off France was winning big, and Italy was winning big.
    
    
    Forrest

    
    	Finally got the results from the challengers races:
    
    	Ville De Paris		over	New Zeland	1:46
    	Il Moro Di Venezia 	over	Nippon		2:04
    
    
    Forrest

    
    	Nippon leading France and well ahead dropped out with steering
    problems.  The aft rudder failed and bent backwards and sidewards. 
    France only needs to finish the course to win.  Winds started out 6 - 9
    and have built to around 14 knots.
    
    
    Forrest
    Ps.		More to follow......

    	New Zeland over Il Moro by 18.5 seconds but it could easily have
    been a blowout.  Il Moro broke 3 or 4 battens on the first windward leg
    and had poor (at best) sail shape.  That was the start of their
    problems late in the race, a crew mistake with a winch override and
    finally a torn genoa.  Through all of this the boats stayed neck and
    neck.  Good close racing with winds that kicked up to as high as 20
    knots at times.  The ESPN boat speed graphics could not register the
    speeds they were maxed out at 12 knots of boat speed.  Italy should be
    happy that they hung tough with all the problems.


    Forrest
    Ps.		Late news now the commentators are saying it was the
    		forward rudder.

    
    	Nippon over France by 2 minutes.  France hit Nippon before start
    and did penalty trun and is protesting result.  Their claim is that
    Nippon did nothing to avoid the collision.  France has a large hole in
    the bow.  Nippon has damage but I did not get to see that pat of the
    tape.
    
    	New Zeland in a come from behind win by about 1 second.  Came down
    to a jibing duel at the end.  It was a great close race it really does
    not get better.  Il Moro hit some kelp on the last leg and was slowed
    by a large margin.  Protest flags were visible when my tape ran out for
    the day.
    
    
    Forrest
    Ps.		It looks like it will be Italy & New Zeland in the
    		challengers final.

    I read in local newspaper that the RC saw NZ hit the finishing mark.
    They ruled that NZ should have rerounded. This was an AP story. Couple
    of flaws. In the story it says that the NZ boat was halfway by the mark
    when it hit. I don't have my rules book handy, but I thought the race
    was over when any part of the boat crossed the finish line. If the
    protest came from the race committee, how do they inform the boat. What
    a break for the Italians if this ruling holds. If anybody gets any
    news, please write.
    protest cc

Date: 3 Apr 92 04:20:56 GMT
 
	SAN DIEGO (UPI) -- France's America's Cup yacht lost a chunk of its bow
Thursday when it tacked into the stern of Nippon during the challenger
semifinals. 

	Ville de Paris finished the race two minutes behind Nippon, which won
for the first time in the semifinals. 

	The bow of Ville de Paris will was damaged above the waterline while
Nippon suffered minor damage to its stern. 

	Repairs will be made during a timely lay-off day Friday, with racing
resuming Saturday. 

	In the other semifinal, New Zealand crossed the finish line one second
ahead of Italy's il Moro di Venezia, but the the Kiwis were disqualified
because they bumped the finishing line buoy. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Wed, 1 Apr 92 18:48:35 PST

	SAN DIEGO (UPI) -- Japan is the only winless team in the America's Cup
challenger semifinals after a broken rudder shaft forced Nippon to withdraw
from Wednesday's race against France. 

	Nippon, which had been in first place after the first three round
robins in the trials, has lost to the other three boats in the semifinals. 

	France's Ville de Paris was ahead by 58 seconds on the fourth leg when
Nippon broke down and limped back to Mission Bay to begin a long, rainy night
of repairs. 

	Italy defeated New Zealand in a thriller to move into a three-way tie
for first place with the Kiwis and French. 

	New Zealand took the lead on the first leg but Il Moro di Venezia
dogged her the entire 20 miles in the brisk wind in front of an approaching
storm front, never trailing by more than 26 seconds and finishing just 18
seconds behind the Kiwis. 


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 31 Mar 92 21:08:31 PST
 
	SAN DIEGO (UPI) -- In the challenger semifinals, France won its 
first race with a one minute, 46 second win over New Zealand. Italy 
defeated Japan by two minutes, six seconds. 

	Italy leads the series with a 2-0 record followed by France and New
Zealand with one win apiece. Japan is winless. 

	The Japanese race France Wednesday and the Kiwis face the Italians. 
 
<><><><><><><><>  T h e   V O G O N   N e w s   S e r v i c e  <><><><><><><><>
 
 Edition : 2547            Wednesday  1-Apr-1992            Circulation :  8162 
 
VNS UK SPORTS REPORT:                             [Ken Merrick, VNS Sports Desk]
=====================                             [Valbonne, France            ]
::: YACHTING
    America's Cup
 
    Challenger series: Il Moro di Venezia bt Ville de Paris by 1'24"
                       New Zealand bt Nippon by 1'43"
                       Ville de Paris bt New Zealand
                       Il Moro di Venezia bt Nippon
 
 
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

I'll be in San Diego mid-may during the finals, and I'd like to watch
closely the races.

What's the best way to do so ? Is it possible to find a place on a boat to 
follow the race on the water ? Any suggestion welcome ...

Jean

    You can call the America's Cup Travel Services at 1-800-922-8792 or
    I've read about a Cruise Lines called Seajet Cruise Lines. They can be
    reached at 1-800-875-0875. Also, Harbor Excursions @ 1-619-234-4111,
    Observations Unlimited @1-800-542-6275. If you don't have any luck
    here, let me know and I'll dig up some more.
    
    Donald

	re:  .69    NZ hitting the finishing mark.

	The rules say that the time for finishing is taken when the first part 
	of the boat (can be your spinnaker etc ) crosses the finishing line.
	However you have not finished racing until the boat is crossed and 
	clear of the line. 
	
	In the case of hitting the finishing mark, you must re-round and your 
	finish time is taken as the time that the first part of your boat 
	re-crosses the line (assuming you don't screw it up again) 

    Back home, at last, I've had the chance to look at Moro v/s
    V.de Paris (saturday) and had pain enough seeing what they've
    been "capable" (uncapable) to do.
    It's been one of the worst races I ever saw: starting with the
    gennaker's lift at mark # 1 and ending on leg # 8 where they've
    wasted 2'26" in only 2.75 miles (having turned ahead by 30").
    
    Yesterday (sunday) they've got a bit of Nippon's chance (or Nippon
    has completely consumed her's), so winning by 1'56" (but they should
    have done it by at least 5': never mind, one second even is enough.
    But, where do we put "noblesse oblige"?
    
    I'm afraid Moro's pit is getting tired.
    
    Classement at now:
    
    New Zealand			points	4	4 won - 2 lost
    Il Moro di Venezia 5	   "	4       4 won - 2 lost
    Ville de Paris		   "	4       4 won - 2 lost
    Nippon			   "	1       1 won - 5 lost
    
    Today, layday.
    
    Bye. Arrigo
    

    errata corrige:
    
    Ville de Paris should be 3 points having lost by Moro,
    New Zealand and, I don't remember who else.
    
    Sorry.
    
    A.
    

    
    	France also lost to Nippon after ramming them at the start.  They
    lost the protest, after looking at the crash I can see how the jury
    decided against them.
    
    
    Forrest

    This is not a request for "instant replay" for AC on-the-water judges,
    but...
    
    I think there were two problems.  Nippon was in the wrong for tacking
    too close.  I tend to agree with Perry that rights are not acquired
    instantly - that when the right of way changes, the burdened yacht must
    be given opportunity to respond.  It looked like Nippon completed her
    tack "just" before getting rammed.  France was in the wrong for causing
    serious damage.  France could clearly (in my opinion on a 2-dimensional
    TV set) have avoided the contact.
    
    This was over 8 minutes before the start.  The judges could have (and
    in my opinion should have) penalized both yachts - Nippon for tacking
    too close and France for causing serious damage.
    
    Interesting enough, there was another incident on Saturday involving
    Nippon.  Italia (I think it was Italia) on Starboard just crossed
    Nippon on Port.  Itailia then tacked into a lee bow position.  (Boy do
    these boats accelerate!  We'd have to cross by about 3-4 boat lengths
    to lee bow someone).  Nippon started luffing a little before Italia
    completed her tack.  By this time, Italia had mast abeam
    by about 20-30 feet.  There was no contact and Italia didn't seem to
    have to alter course (much).  Nippon was penalized.   I don't know what
    Nippon was thinking.  Perhaps they were going to try and immediately
    tack back under Italia and saw that there was too much of an overlap to
    do it.  Maybe they thought that they could bounce Italia on a
    simultaneous tack protest (Nippon was on the right, so a foul in a
    simultaneous tack would go against Italia).  Maybe Nippon was simply
    just trying to luff...
    
    I don't think Nippon should have been called for a foul in this case. 
    Not in this type of racing.  Dickson is ranked way up there in the
    world match-racing standings.  He didn't get there by rolling over and
    playing dead.

re .73 Rules for hitting the mark
	
	>In the case of hitting the finishing mark, you must re-round and your 
	>finish time is taken as the time that the first part of your boat 
	>re-crosses the line (assuming you don't screw it up again) 

	Did the AC sailing instruction change the rule of hitting the mark.
	In my opinion you must take a 720 degree penalty and then from the
	course side re-cross the line.

Rudy

re .77
    
    >It looked like Nippon completed her
    >tack "just" before getting rammed.  

    A yacht completes her tack when it is back on a close hauled course. 
    Was this the case. (sorry no tv coverage in holland)    

    >This was over 8 minutes before the start.

    Can you please tell me the starting procedure for AC races? 8 minutes,
    does this mean during after prepatorial signal or after warning signal.
    Small scale match races as during this years Olympics do not allow
    close contact before the 4 minutes  signal when the blue peter comes up?
    Each yacht gets a side of the starting line assigned and has to stay there
    till the four minutes signal.

Rudy

    	Italy over France after the race was resailed.  The race committee
    goofed up the over early signal.  Italy went back but France did not
    get the signal.  They sailed for an hour and the race committee decided
    to resail the race.  The right decision by why did it take that long to
    decide that.

    	New Zeland over Nippon, Nippon is eliminated and is sailing the last
    2 races with the chance to shift the final outcome.  Could possibly
    keep New Zeland out but I doubt that it will happen.

    	After watching the folks running the races and the on the water
    judges I am not impressed.  I understand how hard it is to run races
    and what a thankless job it is.  At this level I would not expect it to
    take an hour to decide to restart a race, nor would I expect the
    inconsistent judges decisions.  

    Forrest
    Ps.	I only managed to catch the summary show tonight and not replay the
    	tape.

    Needless to say that this morning I feel a little bit less worried.
    
    They've been two beautyful races, mainly the first mark between Nip-
    pon and New Zealand; have you seen the superb manoeuvre by Nippon on
    approching mark # 1? Chris Dickson would have deserved much more than
    he had and I wonder if Sir Michael Fay is now to regret he's not on 
    NZ. I must also admit that I stayed up upto 2:30 local time as I was
    terribly afraid of a mistake in the last leg but, this time, Il Moro
    has performed close to her best even if not yet at 100%; but I suppose
    this will be done in the finals.
    BTW: in a zoomed image from the helicopter I had the impression that
         Il Moro now has a winged keel and this could explain why, even
         with two broken battens, she was tacking closer and faster than 
         VdP. The only moments when VdP regained a 10 seconds has been on
         downwind legs but she wasn't faster at all.
    
    Well, it seems that two red boats will challenge for the Cup.
    
    Tomorrow we'll see what will be the kind of races we have to expect
    for the finals.
    
    Bye all.
    
    A-very_happy_Arrigo.
    

Date: Tue, 7 Apr 92 18:04:55 PDT
 
	SAN DIEGO (UPI) -- Japan was eliminated from the America's Cup Tuesday
and Italy clinched a spot in the challenger finals by defeating the
French.

	Nippon's 31-second loss to New Zealand left the Kiwis and France in the
running for the other spot in the Louis Vuitton Cup finals and the chance to
challenge the San Diego Yacht Club for yachting's most prestigious prize. 

	Italy's Il Moro di Venezia defeated France by 68 seconds in the other
semifinal match which was delayed after the two boats crossed the starting line
early and sailed on for between 20 and 40 seconds before being called back by
the officials. 

	The French and New Zealanders race Wednesday with the final day of
racing on Thursday. The French must win their two remaining races and hope the
Kiwis lose both. 

	Nippon was one of the first teams to set up camp in San Diego and was
among the favorites when eight boats began the grueling challenger trials in
January. 

	Nippon's chances improved when the Japanese swept the seven races in
the third round-robin last month in their country's first America Cup campaign.

	Hard luck struck, however, when a damaged rudder shaft forced Nippon to
withdraw from one race, and a broken boom contributed to Japan's defeat in
another. 

	Nippon took the lead from New Zealand on the first leg and was ahead by
21 seconds after two legs. The Kiwis passed Nippon while sailing upwind on the
third leg and rounded the mark with a 21-second advantage. 

	Although Nippon cut New Zealand's lead to 11 seconds on the reaching
legs, the Kiwis again pulled away on the final upwind leg and had enough of an
edge to hold off the Japanese on the final leg. 

	Il Moro led the entire race despite broken sail battens as Villa de
Paris once again struggled on the upwind legs as the wind picked up from nine
to 14 knots in the late afternoon, a time when it usually dies down. 

 
<><><><><><><><>  T h e   V O G O N   N e w s   S e r v i c e  <><><><><><><><>
 
 Edition : 2552            Wednesday  8-Apr-1992            Circulation :  8135 
 
...
VNS UK SPORTS REPORT:                             [Ken Merrick, VNS Sports Desk]
=====================                             [Valbonne, France            ]
 ...
::: YACHTING
    America's Cup standings as 7 April:
    Louis Vitton Cup
    1. New Zealand          4 wins, 2 defeats
       Il Moro di Venezia
    3. Ville de Paris       3 wins, 3 defeats
    4. Nippon Challenge     1 win, 5 defeats
 
    Challenger Series
    1. Stars and Stripes    4pts
       Kanza                4pts
    3. America 3            1pt
 
<><><><><><><><>   VNS Edition : 2552   Wednesday  8-Apr-1992   <><><><><><><><>

 New Zealand needs to win one of the two remaining races to qualify, beating
VdP today would take the pressure off. When I last heard the racing has being 
delayed with no breeze and it may not happen today. 
	Hey Forrest I hate to be picky but New Zealand has an "A" in it.

Cheers
Revel

P.S. Rumour Time, Dennis Conner has signed up to do the Whitbread Round The 
World yacht race in a Farr 60 footer.

    
    	Sorry, never said I could spell or type worth a damn.....  In fact
    I manage to prove the spelling and typing inability all the time.  Even
    with a spell checker I manager to mess it up.
    
    	The Whitbread race does not sound like Dennis.  Even in his SORC
    days his races were limited to over night sprints.  I just cannot
    picture him putting up with the extended discomfort of a the whitbread.
    If it was worth big buck to him maybe but I doubt it......
    
    
    Forrest

    Semi-finals, 8th race.
    
    Nippon 			beats 	Il Moro di Venezia
    New Zealand 		  "	Ville de Paris
    
    So it's confirmed that two red boats will challenge for the
    finals. I wonder if today we'll see an anticipation of which
    kind of races we have to expect or both of them will only 
    "study" the other and wait for the real challenge.
    
    Terribly sorry for Ville de Paris, Pierre, I would have seen
    both our boats challenging together and, anyway, Marc Pajot
    had trained maybe the best crew. It's been really a pity.
    Je spere que sera meuilluer chance la prochaine fois.
    
    A bientot mon ami!
    
    Bye all.
    
    Arrigo
    

    Semi-finals, 9th race.
    
    New Zealand 		beats	Il Moro di Venezia 5 by 2'20"
    Ville de Paris		  "	Nippon (or was going to when
    						I switched off).
    
    Anyway it's been a very slow race, the right situation for
    NZ, with no waves to affect negatively her keel/rudders.
    Cayard won the start and was doing great but on 3rd leg
    (2nd upwind) Davis did better and Paul's trick on mark # 3
    has not payed so causing a 270 deg. penalty. On the last
    leg Moro has decreased from 4' to 2'20", good, but sure not
    enough. Must be told that Moro hadn't her black mast that is
    much more performing and, again, Moro is told to be 8,000 libs
    heavier than NZ.
    
    We'll see after April, 20th.
    
    Bye all.
    A.
    

Date: Wed, 8 Apr 92 20:23:41 PDT
 
	SAN DIEGO (UPI) -- New Zealand clinched the remaining spot in the
America's Cup challenger finals Wednesday, beating the French by three minutes
and 30 seconds. 

	New Zealand's wide victory over Ville de Paris knocked the French yacht
out of contention for the coveted yachting prize. 

	After the final race of the semifinals on Thursday, the Kiwis will
prepare to meet Italy in the nine-race finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup starting
April 19. 

	The winner will challenge the top American boat for the America's Cup
in May. 

	Italy's Il Moro di Venezia, which clinched a finals berth Tuesday, lost
to Japan Wednesday by 1:53. 

	Ville de Paris once again struggled on the three upwind legs of the
20-mile course, falling behind by 1:05 at the first turn and losing nearly
another minute on the second upwind leg. 

	Skipper Marc Pajot managed to trim eight seconds from New Zealand's
lead on the final upwind leg as Rod Davis sailed conservatively to avoid a
breakdown. 

    Moro / New Zealand : 1 to 1.
    
    What else? I think you all have looked at the TV so any word else
    is probably useless. Certainly Moro's crew need to practice again;
    they're not as professional as Kiwis are and have done too many mi-
    stakes. And again: as for now Moro is too heavy, they've probably 
    forecasted stronger winds than it's now in SD and so the boat can't
    perform at her best, as it has been on the 3rd leg upwind yesterday
    where, in 14 knots, she has shown a better speed and balancement.
    On the last leg they've done the wrong choice raising the spi instead
    of the gennaker and only a... luck has given them the victory.
    
    Sure in case of another race like the last one I'll have heart pills
    close to me. What do they want? People die by heart attacks?
    
    Bye all.
    Arrigo.
    
    

    Yesterday's race was great. NZ is a faster boat, but Paul Cayard is 
    are really great captain. He pulled a trick out of his hat at the
    begining when NZ tried to push him over early. His duck to leeward on
    the last upwind leg was excellant. Finally, when they blew the gybe
    coming downwind and had NZ roll him, his tactics to gybe back and
    squeeze the finish line was magnificant.
    
    Watching the NZ crew get upset at the end was the first time they
    have showed emotion so far. They have a better boat and a more
    consistant crew. But if PC can pull off another couple wins using
    his tactics, you know the NZ captian is going to start choking like
    Chris Dixson did in Freemantle.
    

    Only this:
    
    God will you're right.
    
    Bye.
    
    Arrigo
    

Date: 19 Apr 92 23:12:33 GMT

                             Yachting
	New Zealand beat Italy and America3 overcame a disastrous start to beat
Stars & Stripes in the first races of the America's Cup challenger and defender
finals Sunday.  The 13-race defender finals and the best-of-nine challenger
series resumes Monday. The victors meet in May for the America's Cup. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 19 Apr 92 23:29:50 GMT
 
	SAN DIEGO (UPI) -- 

	New Zealand was flawless as it squashed Il Moro di Venezia at the
starting line and led the entire 20 miles to a 92-second triumph. 

	Paul Cayard, Italy's aggressive skipper, attacked the more conservative
Davis during the pre-start maneuvering. But the Kiwi boat, which had been
considered less maneuverable than Il Moro, was able to cover and leave the
Italians struggling to build up speed at the gun. 

	New Zealand crossed the line 18 seconds ahead of Il Moro and added one
second to the lead at the first mark after Cayard's strong bid to close the gap
with a 23-tack duel. 

	Davis, who learned to sail in San Diego as did Cayard, again held off
Il Moro in a tacking duel on the second upwind leg to keep the margain at 19
seconds. 

	Cayard dogged New Zealand for the first four legs, but his decision to
use a jib on the fifth leg rather than a larger gennaker like the one deployed
by New Zealand cost him 33 seconds. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 20 Apr 92 23:39:17 GMT

	SAN DIEGO (UPI) -- 

	Il Moro di Venezia escaped New Zealand's cover on the last upwind leg
and then held on in the final run to win by one second.  [The BBC commentator
said the 1 second was "official", the margin was actually less.  Cayard & Co
apparently let their spinnaker fly loose, at the finish, to be "the first part
of the boat over the line...]

	Il Moro grabbed the lead on the seventh leg, passing New Zealand on a
close tacking duel that the Kiwis had hoped would give them control of the race.

	New Zealand crossed just in front of the Italians' bow, but Il Moro was
close enough and had enough speed to sail straight into the lead rather than
tack away. 

	Il Moro rounded the final mark with a 19-second lead, the first lead
the Italians held since the start and the first true lead in two races. 

	``The Kiwis tried to put the slam dunk on us up the last beat and we
flew through to leeward and they had to tack away,'' Il Moro skipper Paul
Cayard said. ``We got control of the race there and hammered them pretty good
into the mark.'' 

	The run to the line offered Kiwi skipper Rod Davis another chance to
take the lead when Il Moro's spinnaker began to collapse during a starboard
gyb [gibe?].  Davis got close enough to cover Cayard's mainsail, but the
billowing white spinnaker filled again and it was a true horse race to the
line. 

	The Kiwis protested they had been cut off to the finish line, but the
umpires disallowed it. 

    No words can be enough to describe how stupidly Moro's cockpit has
    wasted one of the most beautiful potential successes in these races.
    
    No one, I think, can explain why, having seen Kiwis gaining wind on
    the right side, Cayard and Chieffi have decided to go on the left
    without covering at all the other boat, even being still 56" ahead
    at mark # 2; mainly considering that on the 1st upwind leg Il Moro
    had expressed more speed just on that side.
    
    I would be able to translate for you the article on an italian sport
    paper that they should read and try to understand.
    
    Moro 5 is really faster than New Zealand, has a better manoeuvrability,
    (sp?) but, it seems to me, Moro's crew doesn't like the victory.
    Do they understand that all the enterprise is_a_lot_of_money_worth?
    
    Don't they have pride of success?
    
    Bear with me, I'm really poisoned this morning.
    
    Bye all.
    
    A_without_words_Arrigo.
    

    Missed the action.  Sounds like the Il Moro racers themselves
    don't beleive there boat is "faster," so they were looking
    for shifts to stay in the race.  How did they get ahead in
    the first place?  So that means 2 to 1 for NZ?
    
    Ciao,
    Dean

    It was bad enough to blow a 1:48 lead, but on the final upwind leg,
    El Moro did not start a tacking duel until they almost reached the
    mark. By then, the only thing that would  have saved them would
    have been a totally muffed gennaker set. NZ was really slow getting
    the chute hoisted, but still popped it 14 seconds after rounding the
    mark. 
    
    Paul C. is getting errattic. Brilliant, STupid, etc. I sure hopes he
    settles down. 
    
    The real hassle is that the difference was less than 25 seconds on the
    down wind run and ESPN cut the broadcasting to put on "Sportcenter",
    a jerkwater program that re-runs at least 5 times a day. All this
    just because it was 7:00 PM est. What clowns.

    Race # 4: New Zealand takes the lead from the start and wins by 2'26".
    	      Light wind, small waves, sure the right situation for NZ
              that's 4,000 kilos lighter. Cayard tried a good start but
              made a mistake when NZ, right after the mark passing by
              1 inch more or less, headed left so giving the chance to
              overcome and Paul didn't try. The rest is history.
    
    NZ 3 points - Moro 1 point.
    
    re. .94: IL Moro starts on the right side of the line, 2" ahead of
    NZ and sails controlling NZ in the tacking duel with good speed;
    NZ seems slowed by the waves. At mark # 1 is 1'42" behind.
    On the first leg upwind Moro sails straight with the spi to the mark;
    NZ reachs with her gennaker on the left side (former right side) and
    speeds up, turning mark # 2 48" behind (recovers 54").
    Moro starts the 2nd upwind leg on the right side (as before) but,
    after a short while, turns left; NZ chooses to go right and gains a
    good shift allowing to control Il Moro from the right and turning 
    mark # 3 ahead by 33" (on this leg Il Moro wastes 1'21").
    On the 3 reaching legs Il Moro is not able to recover and looses
    another 12".
    On the 3rd upwind leg NZ easily controls and starts the final leg
    well ahead winning by a lot of time.
    
    How could it happen? Mainly the tactician (Enrico Chieffi) did not
    learnt the basic lesson in match racing: control the other boat.
    He decided that they could do even better and so didn't do the job.
    Surely he didn't share the decision with Paul (totally upset when 
    turning his head on his left where NZ was expected to be and seeing
    only sea).
    
    Now it's a hard work; we are probably discouraged. My only hope is
    that Paul remebers what a certain John Bertrand did in 1983 when from
    3 to 1 went to 3 to 2 and 3 to 3 and then 3 to 4. And the guy on the
    other red boat was a certain Dennis Conner (and not me).
    Moreover Bertrand was racing in a best of seven; we're in a best of 9.
    
    O.K. let's cross fingers and pray for strong winds and a clever, smart
    tactician.
    
    Anyway Kiwi's crew is a lot better than Moro's crew.
    
    Bye all.
    Arrigo
     
    

    
    	Does anybody know what the technical protest flag Italy was flying,
    was all about.  Did they file and what was the outcome.
    
    
    Forrest

    It's apparently an ongoing thing.  They don't like NZ's bowsprit.
    Apparently the issue has been to the AC class governing body, and the
    _governing_ body has no problem with the bowsprit, but Italy says they
    are going to continue protesting it.
    

    	The bow sprit battle continues Saturdays race never happened due to
    the protest over the bow sprit.  Seems that New Zealand manages to get
    wrapped up in controversy every America's Cup they enter.  After
    listening to the crux of the argument and watching the race NZ's is
    right on the line.  I believe that the real problem is that the rules
    committee has been remiss in not coming out with a hard fast ruling and
    enforcing it.

    	Todays race was close at times and Italy held their lead and
    increased it in a dying breeze to win.  They will protesting todays
    race even though they won.  They want a clear ruling over the use of
    the bow sprit.

    Forrest

    Saturday and sunday's races have shown two masterpierces of match
    racing. Both the races have seen real duels on the upwind legs,
    mainly in the 3rd upwind of saturday's race when both the boats
    seemed dancing a waltz.
    IMO New Zealand crew is still better trained, better tuned together
    and really aggressive and well determined to attack till the very end
    of the race (that's the right way to sail a race). On the last leg of
    saturday they've deserved the victory as they've made the right choice
    (side and sail).
    On the other side (IMO) Il Moro is a 85% better boat, has shown good
    capabilities even in light airs and only in dying breezes the extra
    4 or 5 tons affect negatively her performance. Seems to me like Bruce
    Farr has had an agreement with the devil in order to forecast the ave-
    rage wind speed in this period.
    Re. to the bowsprit affair it seems to me that the committee wants to
    avoid an avalanche of protests from the excluded boats if they admit
    that New Zealand uses it out of rule 64.4 of IYRU so they are not able
    to decide in the proper way. Anyway, in yesterday's race it has shown
    clear that NZ has some problems when not using it.
    
    OK, we're still in it but I suppose that the Kiwis will fight till
    the very end and we all will  see something good (but if the wind
    increases...)
    
    Bye all. Arrigo
    

    The problem with the bowsprit is NZ uses it to maintain guy tension
    during jibes, thus keeping the sail clear of the headstay.  It's like
    using two spinnaker poles.  I can see why Cayard gets upset.  I
    thought they ruled it out during the preliminary rounds.  This
    protest is a repeat of that scenario.
    
    Deal with the Devil?  He must be playing both sides, giving S&S
    the nod.  ;)
    
    Dean

    
  <<    I thought they ruled it out during the preliminary rounds.  This   
  <<    protest is a repeat of that scenario.
    
    That's why. They didn't rule it in the preliminary rounds and that's
    why they don't want to rule it now: they risk that all the other teams
    issue protest against the compliance of the rules in the round Robins
    so asking for a new set of races.
    
    Anyway, heard this morning on the radio, the committee has rejected all
    the other protests issued by Cayard.
    We'll see today in the race what will happen; weather wizs still fore-
    cast light airs and calm sea. These Kiwis risk to be still luck... but
    I've heard by the AC races committee that they'll not accept a boat not
    compliant thats has won not complying with rules (i.e. New Zealand).
    
    What's true about that?
    
    Ciao.
    Arrigo
    

    Don't know about the AC committee, but it sounds like
    one HELL of a controversy brewing, no matter how it gets
    sliced!!!  Someone is going to get his head nailed to the
    floor...
    
    ;)

    If the powers that be decide it's legal, I'm sure
    the American defender could pop on a bow-sprit.  Why
    didn't any of the other challengers, if it was ruled 
    legal?  But I really thought I remembered hearing the
    same discussion during the pre-lim round when NZ was
    "doing it" like everyone else.  Jobson's comment was to
    the effect, "they've had to re-due the deck and learn a
    new jibe technique -- the same technique as everyone else."
    That was weeks ago...
    
    Ciao,
    Dean

    They are waiting to see if NZ beats the defenders. Then they will
    go to court and block Sir Michel Fay from taking the cup home ;>(

    April, 28th, 1992.
    
    New Zealand: 3 - Il Moro: 3.
    
    Light air (7 -> 5 -> 4 knots). Cayard again wins the start forcing
    Rod Davis out of the committee boat. At mark # 1 Moro leads by 1'02".
    She increases on the following legs and the only mistake comes on the
    3rd upwind leg when, due to a lack of control (I think) slips a little
    bit leeward of the mark so obliged to an extra short-tack before tur-
    ning, still ahead by 51". The usual suspence on the last leg where
    New Zealand shows all her capabilities but it's not enough and Moro
    wins by 53".
    Moro's crew is improving even if they aren't yet at Kiwi's level; on
    the other side Kiwis aren't yet that confortable in jibes (sp?) with-
    out using the bowsprit in their way.
    What else? Today's race is really significant. I'm more and more con-
    vinced that Il Moro is a greatly better boat but I'm still concerned
    about the crew; of course, if the wind fades on the last 2 legs the
    matter is open and I wouldn't bet on Moro.
    I'll keep crossing fingers as I don't hope any longer in some more
    wind.
    Ciao a tutti.
    
    Arrigo
      

    April, 29th, 1992.
    
    Il Moro 5:	4	-	New Zealand:	3
    
    Good race this one too. Light winds (6 - 8/9 knots), Russel Coutts
    (replacing Rod Davis guilty of not winning) leads to a good start
    but Cayard and his cockpit work very well and succeed in overcoming
    on a left tack on the right side of New Zealand with a surprising 
    choice of time and moment. A wrong choice of sail from NZ at mark #
    4 slows the boat.
    After that Moro is able to maintain control of the race even if loosing
    a 30" on the last upwind leg (both of them changing genoas).
    On the last downwind leg both raise spinnakers and  Cayard controls 
    and wins by 19".
    
    Today could be the last race and yet no wind more than 10 knots.
    
    Go, Moro, gooo!
    
    Bear with me.
    Arrigo
    
    

    Don't count NZ out.  This series should go the distance.
    If the Kiwis can get their confidence back, the last race
    will be a toss up.  I really like Cayard, but NZ is still the
    faster boat, IMHO.  I don't think much of the Kiwi afterguard 
    switch and expect Davis to be back today.
    
    Great stuff!
    
    Ciao

Re:.85 
>>    Terribly sorry for Ville de Paris, Pierre, I would have seen
>>    both our boats challenging together and, anyway, Marc Pajot
>>    had trained maybe the best crew. It's been really a pity.
>>    Je spere que sera meuilluer chance la prochaine fois.
 
Don't worry for me Arrigo, of course I was a bit sad but I did know that our 
boat had not reach his full potential, and unfortunately, the average weather 
conditions for wich V de P was designed were not in place at that time.

Anyway I really enjoyed a lot that Louis Vuitton's Cup and was surprised to 
see how much I became adicted to these TV reports (and even radio when the 
satellit TV channel was not free!).

Strange paradox, the first launched ACC boat was French, but a big amount of 
time was lost because of an internal conflict into the team (to resume, some 
"old" chiefs had decided Marc Pajot had to much power for one single man!), 
of course, investors don't like these kind of situations at all, and the full 
budget will be available very late (thanks Groupe Legris and Ville de Paris's 
mayor), so the technical research and design program will be shortened, and 
more important, the sailing training on the SD water will not be sufficient 
to get a better knowledge of that very particular place in order to make the 
better tactical choices when the book states the opposite of the reality! 
(cold water and boiled desert with a moving lid upon them create strange 
things, as our better meteorologist said:-).

I know the words "No excuse to loose", but the challengers final reflect 
perfectly what is needed (and what they got) to reach that level.
Anyway today I'm happy, the main partners of our challenge have acknowledged 
to keep that great tool, to continue and begin to work NOW for the next 
edition, in 95. I was delighted too to see the cooperation proposed by the 
French team to share some techniques with the Italians!

A few things about the yesterday's race. To change the helmsman and the 
tactician at this stage (a Michael Fay decision) is creasy for me! Of course 
Coutts is the Match race world champion, and is more aggressive during the 
starts but this is the best way to destabilize the crew, wich has been 
verified in that race! 
Even the best helmsman cannot get used to a boat like New-Zealand, even if he 
had race a couple of time during the first round Robin. During the start, a 
second guy was driving at the same time with the second wheel. At the end of 
the first leg, NZ was crossing starboard in front of Il Moro, then Coutts 
began to tack to cover Cayard but headed to the wind a few long seconds as if 
he was hesitating. Once the tack finished, the boat had lost most of ist 
speed and Il moro was already in favourable position (the onboard camera let 
see the NZ sails getting closer and closer, maybe two or three meters, wow!) 
and forced NZ to tack a new time to definitely loose his advantage at the 
first mark.


Now Arrigo, I'll spend a new late evening with anxiety to watch that first 
game match, and if my/your dream comes true, I will be able at last to see 
those brilliant boats on the water and under the sun from my own boat instead 
of spending the night behind a stupid TV screen!!!

Salut,

. Pierre .

    re. -1
    
    I partially agree with you about NZ's speed; she's fast in light
    to medium airs provided sea is flat and she even accelerates bet-
    ter out of the tacks. On the other side Il Moro is surely faster
    over, say, 13 knots and far more seaworthy; look at the way her
    bow cuts the waves: water never stops her and she accelerates not
    that instantly but takes a pace and increases it.
    
    As I've already stated in a lot of replies I too consider the Kiwis
    very tough and capable, better trained; I'm afraid of Moro's crew
    in the unpredicted, unexpected situations, under stress (and they
    do shout too much while manoeuvring!) but IMHO Paul has got a good
    control on them and even the two Chieffi brothers now play a good
    team with him and Bob Hopkins.
    
    Anyway this is like guessing future: within 6 to 9 hours from now
    we'll know if we'll challenge for the Cup or if we'll have to race
    the hottest and most burning race we can even imagine.
    
    I'll read from you or you'll read from me next monday (tomorrow
    is Worker's Holiday).
    
    Ciao.
    
    Arrigo
    

>>    If the Kiwis can get their confidence back, the last race
>>    will be a toss up.  

Probably, but more than confidence, weather parameters will arbitrate.

>>    I really like Cayard, but NZ is still the faster boat, IMHO.  

No longer. Il Moro has still made progress, specially wind astern. The two 
last races, with typical weather conditions, show it clearly, but of course, 
slight changes in the waves or the wind strength modify slightly the picture.

>>    I don't think much of the Kiwi afterguard switch and expect Davis to be 
>>    back today.
 
This could be the worst and the best thing to do. How the crew could react to 
such foolish decisions? And M. Fay would loose face. No, I don't think Davis 
will be back. Following the bowsprit affair, and the strong Italian 
protests, the NZ machine has been destabilized, every new change will not get 
balance back. But as you said, it's a toss up now, so who cares ;-)

. Pierre .

    Pierre, I hope you too are crossing fingers with all of us.
    
    Mr. Gardini is emphasizing the concept of an European challenge
    and, after that, an European defense. We'll see.
    
    A bientot.
    Arrigo
    

    
    
    
    YES!!!!!!!
    
    Moro takes it.  NZ is apparently protesting for "unsportsmanlike
    conduct" or some such, but I'm not sweating it.
    
    
    Next, America^3!
    
    If they clinch it, that is.....
    
    
    Abbiamo vinto!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    
    F.
    

    	I am a little surprised but glad to see that Italy managed to win.
    Paul Cayard and crew went through a several spells of really erratic
    tactical calls and some weak crew work.  They seem to have solved most
    of those and after the protest ruling last week really settled them
    down. 

    	I have never really cared for Michael Fay, he always seemed to be
    in it for the money he could make by holding an Americas Cup in N.Z. 
    Now we get to wait and see if A3 can clinch it Saturday of if Dennis
    can stretch it out a little longer.  It looks like the old saying that
    he with the most money wins is going to hold true.....

    Forrest

	

	Congratulations to Italy on winning the final races.

re .-1   I have never really cared for Michael Fay, he always seemed to be
         in it for the money he could make by holding an Americas Cup in N.Z. 
	With this I tend to agree but as an active sailor in NZ it would have 
done a lot for the profile of the sport over here. With our weather conditions
it would have made for an interesting series. Yachting has had a high 
profile through the TV coverage of the AC.

Micheal Fay has said it proberly will be the last campaign that he will do, 
as it is becoming too expensive. But he did say it would depend on the results 
between the Americians and Il Moro. 
I think if it stays in the US we will compete again.

IMHO I think the racing the challangers have had over the last couple of months
will set them up better BUT the big question is how fast are the A3 boats. The
challange these days is hanging on to the cup and the US have the longest history
of doing this.
 
	Dont know what happened last week, the wheels seemed to fall off
after losing the protest over the use of the bowsprit. A lot of very 
disappointed people in NZ.
	
The next major event is the Whitbread which will receive similar coverage here.
There will be at least 2 NZ entries. 

Cheers
Revel.

    I would now suggest to Alan B. to create an entry only dedicated
    to the Cup's final. Is it possible?
    
    Thanks & bye.
    
    A_very_glad_Arrigo.
    

    What's the schedule for the finals?
    Jim Kelly mentioned coverage on May 9, 
    but Yachting lists May 10.
    
    Dean, who's finally getting cable
    so he can watch at home...   ;)

    	Starts Saturday May 9th the first race is being covered by ABC. 
    Then it goes back to ESPN on the schedule they were using for the
    elimination series.  I hope ABC devotes a full 3 hours to it and
    covers the sailing but I expect that they will have 10 minutes of
    sailing and the rest up close and personal segments on every body and
    their brother who has anything to do with the racing.

    Forrest

A BIG congratulation to Italy, Paul Cayard, Raoul Gardini, and Mediterranean 
spirit!

A BIG sorry too for New Zealand, I liked a lot the B.Farr design concept, the 
kiwi professionalism, and... Rod Davis. For me, the biggest mistake of that 
Vuitton's cup will be that sudden change of helm and tactic people, 15 
minutes (!!!) before the race start. Over the money, that still prove the 
human mind, at a very high level of competition, is the most important and 
the most fragile too (specially when everybody was impressed by the lack of 
any emotional comportment on the NZ boat during and after the race whatever 
the result of it), and that why sailing is a great sport too!

I'm proud too, to know that French sails design (spinnakers, gennakers) have 
made a lot to increase Il Moro speed on the reach.

I'm confident for the cup...........

. Pierre .

> I'm proud too, to know that French sails design (spinnakers, gennakers) have 
> made a lot to increase Il Moro speed on the reach.

According to the papers in the U.K. the A� team intent to protest against the
use of French Sail technology in the Italian boat. The rules of the challenge
say that the sails must be designed and made by a national of the country
whose boat they are on, or be available 'off-the-shelf', i.e. available to
everybody.

We shall see

Chris

The following was published in the L.A. times, republished in usenet, and it
is a comparison of raw boat speed between Moro and America^3.
The data was collected from the last set of races the boats
were involved in.

They seem like well matched boats.....

Should be good races.

Enjoy.

F.

nntpd.lkg.dec.com!news.crl.dec.com!deccrl!bloom-beacon!mintaka.lcs.mit.e
edu!olivea!uunet!cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.co
olumbia.edu!bronze!ogre!will
From: [email protected] (William Sadler)
Newsgroups: rec.boats
Subject: A^3 v. Il Moro
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: 5 May 92 21:48:57 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (USENET News System)
Organization: Center for Innovative Computer Applications, Indiana University,
Bloomington
Lines: 74
Nntp-Posting-Host: ogre.cica.indiana.edu

This appeared in the LA Times.  I thought it might be interesting
to some of you.

How America^3 and Il Moro Compare

   APRIL 26

   WINDS: 5-9-6 KNOTS. SWELL: 2 FEET
          Il Moro  America3
UPWIND       33:59     34:17
             27:04     25:46
             31:54     36:11
DOWNWIND     23:47     23:58
             24:46     25:08
REACHES       8:46      8:51
             13:08     13:30
              8:54      9:51
TOTALS     2:52:20   2:57:36
Il Moro def. New Zealand, 43 seconds; Stars & Stripes def. America 3, 1:28.

   APRIL 28

   WINDS: 5-8-7 KNOTS. SWELL: 2 FEET
          Il Moro  America3
UPWIND       37:26     42:40
             35:54     28:05
             29:12     28:51
DOWNWIND     27:55     24:20
             22:00     19:26
REACHES      10:31      9:03
             14:39     14:33
             12:32      9:19
TOTALS     3:10:14   2:56:22
Il Moro def. New Zealand, 53 seconds; Stars & Stripes def. America 3, 1:47.

   APRIL 29

   WINDS: 6-8-9 KNOTS. SWELL: 1 FOOT
          Il Moro  America3
UPWIND       31:48     32:29
             29:49     29:12
             26:16     27:08
DOWNWIND     24:40     28:42

             18:12     16:34
REACHES       8:49      8:51
             12:53     13:24
              8:59      9:14
TOTALS     2:41:29   2:45:39
Il Moro def. New Zealand, 20 seconds; America 3 def. Stars & Stripes, 1:08.

   APRIL 30

   WINDS: 11-12-14 KNOTS. SWELL: 3 FEET
          Il Moro  America3
UPWIND       30:10     30:32
             25:44     23:44
             23:45     23:58
DOWNWIND     22:00     21:07
             16:21     16:02
REACHES       8:02      8:14
             12:09     12:17
              8:30      8:02
TOTALS     2:26:41   2:23:59
Il Moro def. New Zealand, 1:33; America 3 def. Stars & Stripes, 1:43.

   NOTE: Races sailed on adjacent courses; wind strength given for successive
upwind legs; times in hours, minutes, seconds.

>>According to the papers in the U.K. the A� team intent to protest against 
>>the use of French Sail technology in the Italian boat. The rules of the 
>>challenge say that the sails must be designed and made by a national of the 
>>country whose boat they are on, or be available 'off-the-shelf', i.e. 
>>available to everybody.

OK, they just hacked some data files through the net! ;-)

Seriously, I think when they created the new AC Class they just forgot to 
wipe this anachronous rule wich is absolutely no longer respected at all by 
anybody, and on that subject, Ville de Paris was probably the most "National" 
boat and team of all the challengers!

But you're right, experience shows we must be ready to face all this kind 
silly protests!

And, afterall, WE are an European Challenge! Is'nt it Arrigo?!

Bye,

. Pierre .

    Re. -1
    Yes Pierre and, as a proof of that you will probably see that I'm
    not on my usual node but in Bruxelles this time.
    Just this morning I've read on TIMES a nice article on Cayard and
    his nicest statement follows.
    He's been asked what he thinks about Koch's statement that the ac-
    tual AC is 55% technology, 35% crew's skill and 10% luck.
    Answer: "Really don't know, it's not a long time I sail."
    (25 years against Koch's 8 years of sailing).
    I'm quite sure that BK is well aware that he's going to loose the
    Cup (possibly 4 - 0 IMHO; OK, now I told it!) and he's now trying to
    find out all the possible excuses. He's well aware, even in his presum-
    tuous approach, that Paul is a much better skipper, Il Moro is much 
    faster, and Italian technology this time has worked properly.
    Re to the silly rule about the nationality it will be object of a 
    further discussion.
    Bye for now.
    Arrigo
    

    I am personally rooting for Il Moro ... but I don't think it's going to
    be as easy as you think.  The boats seem too evenly matched, and Koch
    isn't the only experienced helmsman on A*3.
    
    I think it would be good for the event if the Cup moved around a bit,
    and it would be nice to use it as an excuse to visit the Mediterranean. 
    Besides, I promised a friend in Milano that I'd learn to speak Italian
    if Il Moro won ... then I'd come over and root for the Americans next
    time around ... :^)
    
    ... Bob
    

    re -.2
    
    Nice slight of hand on Cayard's part, but Koch's breakdown
    of the winning factors was probably pretty good.  It's the
    55% boatspeed that killed Dennis.
    
    Il Moro much faster?  How do you figure that?  I think she
    may well be slightly faster, but the not "much."  And in some 
    instances, I'm sure A-cubed will have the speed advantage.  
    
    Il Moro's biggest advantage will be the skipper, I think.  I'm
    on record all over the place as being a Cayard believer, and
    I just don't think the A-cubed troika will be able to cope.
    
    Il Moro 4
    A-cubed 2 or 3.
    
    When would the CUP be held if it goes to the Med?  Where?  
    Prevailing conditions?
    
    Ciao,
    Dean

    re. -1
    
    IF... it could be held in Venice gulf (provided they're able to
    build an adequate harbour and dockyards, basins etc.) from May
    to September.
    Prevailing conditions: light winds (earth breeze for a couple
    of hours in the morning, 9.00 to 11.00 mainly); better sea bree-
    zes after 14.00, either NE or SE, rarely N or NW.
    Maximum predictable wind speeds: a little bit more than in SD
    perhaps but's since long I don't sail over there.
    If not in Venice, the best places in Italy could be either
    Costa Smeralda in Sardinia (stronger NW to W winds and rough
    sea) or Punta Ala in Tuscany (there's a beautyful Marina) with
    lighter NW in the afternoon than in Sardinia but constant up to
    18.00, normal sea, or, again, Cala Galera, Argentario Cape,
    south of Punta Ala with a very good Marina and harbour and
    same weather conditions.
    Out of these I can only imagine somewhere in France (Hyeres?)
    but Pierre Jahan can answer better than I.
    Bye for now, I'll get in touch next monday, again from Belgium
    so I'll unfortunately miss race # 2 as I leave on sunday but
    hope no delay tuesday on the return flight for race #3.
    
    Arrigo
    

I think Costa Smeralda would be the best place if you
consider all the factors -- facilities and prevailing conditions.

One of the things people complained about SD is the lack of wind, and
Sardinia would be considerably better.

The areas around Punta Ala and around Venice are bacalmed much too much,
don't you think Arrigo?

F.

    re. -1
    
    I agree about Venice but Punta Ala isn't that becalmed.
    
    So, now we have a 1 to 1 in two races in which it's been a little
    difficult to understand something except that the two boats are mo-
    re similar than one could believe. 
    1st race could probably have been the master of the 2nd if Cayard 
    would have stayed more calm but he was probably under pressure (!).
    
    From here (Brussels) I only could see the final meters of the 2nd 
    race with even Cayard and Koch not understanding who was the winner.
    
    Sure this new AC class of boats is worth the show; I think that never
    someone has seen so many nose-to-nose arrivals with photo-finish.
    
    Today layday (and tomorrow I should be back in Rome! in front of my
    TV).
    
    Ciao a tutti.
    

    So, now, will we move to note 636?
    
    Bye.
    Arrigo_hoping_his_flyght_back_to_Rome_is_on_schedule_to_evening.
    

    Late but due:
    
    end of July 1993 Mr. Raul Gardini, promoter of the Italian Challenge
    of Il Moro di Venezia to the America Cup 1992, committed suicide.
    
    Rumours want he was involved in the last bribery scandals that are
    finally being investigated in Italy and he was going to be arrested.
    
    I can't say anything about that and, even if I could, I would not here.
    
    I only want to honour the memory of the man who wanted this challenge
    and fighted hard and fairly for it; even if he din't win he was a win-
    ner for us sailors/racers. 
    
    May God be piteous with his soul. We'll not forget him.
    
    Arrigo de Angeli - Rome - Italy.
    
    
    "The evil that men do, lives after them.
     The good is oft interred with their bones."
     
    [W. Shakespeare - Julius Caesar]