| | AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes took the lead in the semifinals of the Louis Vuitton Cup on Monday, when the two favorites fell on Auckland's
Hauraki Gulf.
|  | | Peter Gilmour and the Nippon Challege were too fast for Le Defi Francais. |
Stars & Stripes, steered by Ken Read, grabbed the advantage
off the starting line to inflict a 1 minute, 7 second defeat on Italy's Prada team, the pre-series favorite, on the second day of the semifinals. Stars & Stripes is the only one of the six semifinalists without a loss.
The other joint favorite, Paul Cayard's AmericaOne, lost by over two minutes to San Francisco's America True.
For the second day in succession, Bertrand Pace and his French team, Le Defi Francais, were on the wrong end of the closest match of the day, trailing Peter Gilmour's Nippon Challenge across the finish line by just 38 seconds.
With southwesterly winds in the 20- to 25-knot range, it was on the upper limit of wind strength for these boats, and the list of damage told the tale.
The Prada team, already trailing Stars & Stripes, lost
further ground when the vang, that controls the angle of the
boom, exploded, making the mainsail difficult to control.
America True shredded a spinnaker and looked to have forfeited any chance of beating AmericaOne when its rival's jib blew out, and ended up in the water wrapped around the keel.
Both Le Defi and Nippon also suffered breakdowns, but managed to keep battling through their close and hard-fought race.
The Louis Vuitton Cup is the series to select a challenger
to meet the holder of the America's Cup, Team New Zealand,
beginning Feb. 19. The top two finishers from the semifinals will hold a best-of-nine series to determine the Kiwis' challenger. | |
ALSO SEE
Semifinals schedule and results
Prada, Conner and AmericaOne win
Jobson: Nippon's indescretion gives Kiwis an edge
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