< Stars & Stripes, Prada On a Collision Course >

Team Dennis Conner seems headed for a quarterfinal showdown with Prada. OneWorld's 0-4 whitewash by Oracle earned it the privilege of determining the pairings for the best-of-seven repechage sailoffs, and it will be a surprise if the Seattle team doesn't pick Victory Challenge.

This is assuming that Stars & Stripes USA 77 finishes off Britain's GBR and the Swedes recover from Friday's brain fade to put Le Defí Areva out of its misery. At this point, S&S, with its new, faster boat, appears to be the only refugee from the lower four that has a chance of seeing the semifinals.

While sailing USA 66, Team DC split with Prada in the Round Robins, 1-1, but the Italians are also faster now, and by the time they slap their second new bow on ITA 74, with ITA 80 still in the shed, they could look like a Ferrari.

It should be quite a series, and it's a shame one will be left by the wayside because both may now be better than OneWorld, which only has to whup the Swedes before it gets thrown to Alinghi or back to Oracle.

After going up 3-1 on GBR, S&S skipper Ken Read was asked about those prospects in the post-race press conference, based on USA 77's apparent potential.

"Certainly it’s a step ahead," he said. "It gives our whole program a whole new attitude. It’s a delicate issue out there, your own individual psyche, and the whole program feels like it has hope now, and that’s what’s 77’s done for us."

< Happy Daze >

Friday's press conference was right out of Comedy Central. Even OneWorld helmsman James Spithill got into the fun, despite just losing four in a row to Oracle.

Q: Why did Gillie (Peter Gilmour) not sail on board today?

SPITHILL: He’s too old, mate [laughter from media audience]. I think as soon as you get over 25 you’ve got to get off [note: Spithill is 23]. It was totally Pete’s call. We’ve rotated all our crew since the start and we’ve said to every guy if you want to step off for a day there will be someone there that can fill your role and do a great job. Charlie McKee stepped back into tactician and [Morgan] Larson came on as strategist. It's great to be able to have that option. I’ve stepped off a few times, everyone on the boat has.

Q: Did Gillie watch the boat from the tender?

SPITHILL: I think he was keen to get on Mr. Allen’s boat, Tatoosh, but I don’t think he made it on there. [note: That would be co-owner Paul Allen, the ex-Microsoft mogul who has his luxury power yacht on site.]

Everyone seemed pretty chipper. Allen wasn't at the press conference---he and partner Craig McCaw keep lower profiles than Howard Hughes ever did---but affable Larry Ellison was on hand again to swap gags with Chris Dickson.

Q to Ellison: Will you train with the team in the coming days?

ELLISON: I have to go back to work for three weeks but, hopefully, I will come back early and, hopefully, Chris will at least let me sail [backup boat] USA-71.

Q: It’s Chris’ decision?

ELLISON: Well, I guess it’s Chris’ decision. He’s the skipper.

DICKSON: Sorry to announce to Oracle Corporation but he will not be back for the next three weeks. He will be staying here . . .

ELLISON: As long as he pays my salary.

Word is that they're working on Abbott and Costello's "Who's On First?" routine for future presentation.

< Cover! Cover! Cover! >

Experienced match racers will tell you that those are the first three rules of the game. Apparently, it doesn't translate well into Swedish. Victory helmsman Magnus Holmberg explained how the Swedes let Le Defí come from behind to win its first race for a momentary reprieve:

"I think we were seeing on the other course that they were having huge left-hand shifts and we were really afraid of that shift coming down the course," Holmberg said. "We were not quite certain what to do in that situation. We thought the left shift would come in a little earlier than it did. There was a little better pressure on the right side, but it looked like the left-hand shift was coming down.

"As we were getting further out to the left-hand side, we got the first knock [headed wind] and tacked over but it didn’t carry us all the way over to the French. We went to make a duck and they did a good slam dunk on us, and after that the wind started going left about 30-35 degrees. Our timing wasn’t that good and the French did a good job of getting past us. So, in hindsight, it’s easier to say we should have covered the French boat, but at that instance with what we were seeing we thought the left side was better. It was a mistake."

< Illusions and Delusions >

The French didn't think the Swedes blew it. They thought their boat was just suddenly faster.

Sailing manager Pierre Mas said, "We made some minor adjustments to the winglets overnight and it is this culmination of modifications that has lent us a little extra speed downwind. We saw that today. And we are also just starting to see the boat performing as it should upwind, thanks to some of the speed tests we have be doing with [backup boat] FRA 79."

The Brits also were more competitive against Stars & Stripes after fiddling with some underwater dynamics overnight. The changes were extensive enough to require a new measurement certificate, but skipper Ian Walker sidestepped a specific explanation.

"Stars & Stripes have had a little more speed than us, so it was time to try a change, particularly with the wind conditions forecast. We changed something below the water. We did a much better job speed-wise than we did yesterday so I’m a lot more optimistic. We’re not out of this quarterfinal yet and we’ll keep fighting back."

Walker, an Olympic gold medallist in 2000, also drove the pre-start for the first time, but GBR was 14 seconds behind at the line.

"We have had a few control problems at the start with the boat, and after much discussion yesterday it was [resolved] that I have had the most time on the wheel and maybe have the most feel for the boat," Walker said. "But I did a poor job of the start today and Kenny controlled me well."

As for GBR's perceived boost in speed, Read had his own take.

"It was shifty, there were big holes, it was flukey," he said, "the kind of day when you can’t be too far ahead. The wind was the strongest at the top end of the course, which meant that the lead boat was always sailing the spinnaker run into areas of lighter breezes, while the trailing boat brought more breeze down. It was nerve-wracking because we’d develop a nice lead and then watch it evaporate."