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| | Thursday, December 2 | |||||
| AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Young America fell further behind Friday, losing to Japan's Nippon in the challenger series for sailing's America's Cup.
Initially one of the favorites, the New York Yacht Club's syndicate is in eighth place in the final round-robin of the series to decide who will take on defender New Zealand next year.
The top six challenger teams will advance to a finals series
beginning in January.
Young America is struggling to come back from near disaster in
the second round, when one of its boats cracked apart during a race
and almost sank. Major structural work was carried out to repair
and strengthen both boats.
There was no sign of structural problems Friday when Young America beat Nippon to the start, nor during an intense tacking duel on the first beat.
But Nippon emerged the winner of the duel, and Young America came away having to make a penalty turn for tacking too close. Despite some wind shifts later in the race that favored the Americans, Nippon held them off and scored the winner's nine points with a margin of 4 minutes, 55 seconds.
Italy's Prada leads the 11 challenger syndicates with 64 points, 10 more than AmericaOne. On Friday, Prada beat the French team by 37 seconds for its 21st victory in 22 starts.
Also Friday, America True and Stars and Stripes -- both
surprisingly strong contenders in the second round -- went head to
head, with Dawn Riley's America True the victor.
And Paul Cayard's AmericaOne reclaimed second place from Dennis Conner's Stars and Stripes with an easy victory over Hawaii's Abracadabra 2000.
The mast aboard Swiss team Fast 2000's only boat snapped part
way through its race against the Spanish team, casting doubt on the
financially struggling team's ability to compete in future races.
|  ALSO SEE Prada leads launch of third round robin
Third-round schedule and results
Young America ends round 2 in misery
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