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OneWorld changes yacht for repechage
AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Louis Vuitton challenger OneWorld has changed yachts for the quarterfinal repechage, the only team to have done so. The repechage begins on Saturday when the four lowest ranked syndicates begin a best-of-seven series to determine two teams to go through to the semifinals. The winners from the all-American series between OneWorld and Team Dennis Conner and Italian Prada vs. Swedish Victory match will join Swiss team Alinghi and Oracle BMW Racing in the semifinals. OneWorld's skipper Peter Gilmour announced on Friday that the Seattle-based team will be sailing USA 67, the boat that took them successfully through the round robins, rather than USA 65, the boat that saw them fall to a 4-nil defeat by U.S. rivals Oracle in the quarterfinals. There are six teams left of the original nine in the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series after the British GBR and the French Le Defi Areva were eliminated on Monday and the Italian Mascalzone Latino went home at the end of the second round robin series. Quarterfinal winners Alinghi and Oracle have already advanced directly to the semifinals, which start on December 9. As members of the top four seeded "double chance'" group, the defeated Prada and OneWorld got a second chance to stay in the competition by meeting the two winners of the lower half of the draw, Victory and Team Dennis Conner. Although OneWorld were beaten by Oracle in the quarterfinals, as the top-seeded challenger in the repechage series they were able to choose their opponent. There were no surprises when OneWorld chose Team Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes, the lowest rated of the six remaining challengers. Stars & Stripes helmsman Ken Read admitted that it was not much fun being chosen as the weakest opponent. "It's a humbling thing in a way, but at the same time our team has used it as a chance to get a little mad. These guys think we're the worst of the heap, let's go out there and prove them wrong," he said. President of Team Dennis Conner and spinnaker trimmer on Stars & Stripes Bill Trenkle said: "We've only raced the Seattle boat twice and although we lost those two races, Stars & Stripes has lifted its game a lot since then." On paper OneWorld are by far the stronger team, but they seemed to reach a plateau early in the series and have not improved as fast as Oracle BMW Racing. In the other repechage match, Prada, the defender of the Louis Vuitton Cup, are the favourites for their match against Victory, having comfortably beaten the Swedes both times they met in the round robins. After seeing Prada push Alinghi to two very close 8-second wins in the quarterfinals, it could be crew and tactical deficiencies rather than boat speed that has held the Italian team back so far. Prada have made more changes to ITA 74 and have yet to race their second boat ITA 80. The winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup will challenge Team New Zealand in a best-of-nine America's Cup Match starting on February 15, 2003.
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