Hopes sinking for Harrison's challenge
Sailing: Peter Harrison's hopes of a prolonged America's Cup campaign aboard Wight Lightning fell after another defeat at the hands of Team Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes.
Peter Harrison's hopes of a prolonged America's Cup campaign aboard Wight Lightning are falling like autumn leaves in a gale following another crushing defeat in the quarter-finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup at the hands of Team Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes.
The yawning gap between Harrison's GBR Challenge and its American counterpart was illustrated as Wight Lightning went 2-1 down in this best-of-seven series, with a 2min 10sec margin of defeat.
Another poor start began the downfall of the British team, and despite having the advantage with a minute to go, being to windward and on the favoured side, Kenny Read in Stars & Stripes slipped through the cover that White Lightning's Andy Beadsworth had gained and beat him off the line for pace as once again the British boat appeared to stall as it headed into the wind.
GBR Challenge's one win in this series was the result of the pre-start penalty it imposed on Stars & Stripes and not the result of sailing faster. They must win three races of the remaining four if they are to continue.
The Prada syndicate has withdrawn its yacht Luna Rossa from the quarter-finals of the America's Cup against Alinghi of Switzerland.
Having suffered three defeats in a row, the owner of the syndicate, Patrizio Bertelli, informed the Challenger of Record Management of his intention and indicated that Alinghi should be given the extra point to complete their victory and progress directly into the semi-final.
The move enabled Prada to perform major modifications to Luna Rossa (ITA-74) before the repechage with the winner of the match between Sweden's Orm and the French Le Defi Areva in eight days' time.
The extra day will allow testing time with Prada's other boat (ITA-80) to determine which one should be used.
In the other two races, the scorelines extended to 3-0 in each. Oracle-BMW Racing team, skippered by Chris Dickson, came from behind Peter Gilmour's OneWorld to continue its unbeaten record while Victory Challenge from Sweden once again beat France's Le Defi Areva .
· Ellen MacArthur in Kingfisher has retained her six-mile lead over Mike Golding's Ecover in the Route du Rhum race to Guadeloupe, and the pair have extended their lead over the next boat to 160 miles. They were just short of the Azores with 2,500 miles of the 3,540-mile race to go.
The yawning gap between Harrison's GBR Challenge and its American counterpart was illustrated as Wight Lightning went 2-1 down in this best-of-seven series, with a 2min 10sec margin of defeat.
Another poor start began the downfall of the British team, and despite having the advantage with a minute to go, being to windward and on the favoured side, Kenny Read in Stars & Stripes slipped through the cover that White Lightning's Andy Beadsworth had gained and beat him off the line for pace as once again the British boat appeared to stall as it headed into the wind.
GBR Challenge's one win in this series was the result of the pre-start penalty it imposed on Stars & Stripes and not the result of sailing faster. They must win three races of the remaining four if they are to continue.
The Prada syndicate has withdrawn its yacht Luna Rossa from the quarter-finals of the America's Cup against Alinghi of Switzerland.
Having suffered three defeats in a row, the owner of the syndicate, Patrizio Bertelli, informed the Challenger of Record Management of his intention and indicated that Alinghi should be given the extra point to complete their victory and progress directly into the semi-final.
The move enabled Prada to perform major modifications to Luna Rossa (ITA-74) before the repechage with the winner of the match between Sweden's Orm and the French Le Defi Areva in eight days' time.
The extra day will allow testing time with Prada's other boat (ITA-80) to determine which one should be used.
In the other two races, the scorelines extended to 3-0 in each. Oracle-BMW Racing team, skippered by Chris Dickson, came from behind Peter Gilmour's OneWorld to continue its unbeaten record while Victory Challenge from Sweden once again beat France's Le Defi Areva .
· Ellen MacArthur in Kingfisher has retained her six-mile lead over Mike Golding's Ecover in the Route du Rhum race to Guadeloupe, and the pair have extended their lead over the next boat to 160 miles. They were just short of the Azores with 2,500 miles of the 3,540-mile race to go.
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