"It's kill or be killed." The words are Ken Read's and the Team Dennis Conner neatly encapsulates what's at stake in the quarter-final repecharge.
Already the minnows and sprats have gone - Mascalzone Latino, GBR Challenge and le defi Areva- but now two of the bigger fry are fighting for survival.
In an all American contest, either Team Dennis Conner or OneWorld will be going home; in the other match, the de-railed Prada team meets Sweden's Victory Challenge in a bid to stave off an ignominious, embarrassing and costly early exit.
Disbelief is now an almost universal reaction to Prada's plight. But as team member Rod Davis puts it: "There's one thing you can say about Patrizio Bertelli. If he is to go down, he's going down fighting."
Having pulled out of the last race against Alinghi, Prada have been flat out preparing for its second life in the repecharge. Despite a complete re-build at Cookson, the team's second boat ITA 80 has sat forlornly outside the compound. Inside the shed, a second new bow has been put on ITA 74.
On Friday, the boat was measured just after dawn by ACC class technical director Ken McAlpine, sailed for a few hours against ITA 80 before skipper Francesco de Angelis had to nominate his pick to meet Victory. It was ITA 74. If ITA 80 is unloved by the team, then ITA 74 is unproven- that's the pickle Prada's got itself into.
The Swedes have their own issues too. The late Jan Stenbeck never settled his afterguard and his son Hugo has maintained the policy of never letting things settle. Indecision or deliberate creative tension? Take your pick.
At least Danish triple Olympic medallist Jesper Bank thinks he's got the nod over Swede Magnus Holmberg for the best of seven against Prada. "I'll be at the helm of the boat," said Bank, before adding the deadpan rejoinder, "But you know this game...."
In the other match, the contest boils down to whether OneWorld have peaked and whether Team Dennis Conner are as good as GBR Challenge made them appear in their previous quarter final.
Unstoppable in the rounds-robins, OneWorld swapped from USA 67 to 65 for the quarter-final and were hammered by Oracle BMW, both in terms of speed and in Peter Holmberg's handling of James Spithill in the pre-start.
The OneWorld's boats have identical hulls off the same mould and skipper Peter Gilmour announced that the Seattle team will revert to USA 67. The boats' only difference are in their appendages and how they vary, only the team knows.
In Team Dennis Conner, the Stars & Stripes found more speed when they brought USA 77 into the competition against GBR and Read's confidence in the pre-start was given plenty of succour. But even Read acknowledges that there are nerves on Conner's boat. "It's a fickle game. Sometimes success breeds confidence."
It will be Spithill's task to deflate this new confidence in the start sequence before we get down to the nitty-gritty of which boat is faster.
In both matches, there is no clear cut favourite. The repecharge has brought a delicious uncertainty to the racing.
Tim Jeffery, 22 November 2002
