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Prada yacht returns to boatyard
AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Italian syndicate Prada has sent one of its two America's Cup yachts to the boatyard for modifications. Team designers and technicians will work to "enhance the performance" of Luna Rossa ITA-80 at the Auckland yard, the team said. Luna Rossa ITA-80 will be back in the water the first week of November. The team has sailed Luna Rossa ITA-74 during round robin one and plans to use it during round robin two as well. Prada, current holder of the Louis Vuitton Cup, has not sailed as well as expected in the first round. Its two victories were against weak teams – the French Le Defi Areva and Victory of Sweden. It failed to succeed against Stars & Stripes of America's Cup veteran Dennis Conner and Alinghi, skippered by two-time America's Cup winner Kiwi Russell Coutts. Prada is ranked fifth equal in the round robin standings and has yet to face top-ranked OneWorld and one of the favourites, Oracle BMW Racing. Syndicate chief Patrizio Bertelli has doubled his investment in the syndicate, from $55 million in the 2000 campaign to $105 million, but now faces the prospect of being dropped into the second half of the quarter-finals draw, where there will be a sudden death elimination. The move to shift ITA-80 to the boatyard comes after Prada's design director Doug Peterson was removed from his position after just one race. Peterson had been with the team since 1997 and had previously worked with the winning 1992 American and 1995 New Zealand America's Cup syndicates. Bertelli stressed that Peterson's release was not related to the performance of the boat after losing its opener to Oracle BMW Racing. "We lost one race by about 40 seconds. So it's certainly far too early into the series to assess the performance of the boats." At the same time Bertelli swept aside any questions about structural problems with ITA-80. ITA-80 was the last of all the new 2003 series America's Cup yachts to leave the design base. It was flown to New Zealand to save time. However, after the first sail the boat was lifted out of the water and has been left untouched on the dockside. Prada has said modifications will be made to the hull, but claim this is part of a development process of the design rather than remedying any deficiencies in the structure.
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