Seattle's OneWorld will race New York's Stars & Stripes and Prada of Italy will take on Sweden's Victory Challenge in quarterfinal repechages starting Saturday at the America's Cup off Auckland.
OneWorld was expected to avoid its American rival which has made startling performance gains since it put forward its salvaged yacht, USA-77, in the quarterfinals which ended Monday. Instead, it elected to promote all-American and all-European repechages.
The best-of-seven race ``second-chance'' repechages combine the losers of the top four quarterfinals, OneWorld and Prada, and the winners of the bottom four matches, Victory and Stars & Stripes. OneWorld, as the highest-ranked team, had the right to choose its opponent.
The decision, eventually made by OneWorld's crew, had to be made within 24 hours of the conclusion of the quarterfinals. The announcement came three hours before the deadline yesterday.
``We put it to the team and at the end of the day we decided this was the best decision for us,'' said OneWorld chief executive Gary Wright.
Spokesman Bob Ratliffe said arguments could be formed for racing any prospective opponent. He declined to outline the rationale for its decision but it appears OneWorld has decided to hit Stars & Stripes before it becomes too strong.
The New York team headed by Cup legend Dennis Conner won only six of its 16 races in rounds one and two of the challenger series, qualifying for the quarterfinals in seventh place among eight teams.
When it swapped its first race yacht, USA-66, for its second USA-77, which sank and was salvaged off Long Beach, California, in mid-July it made sudden and impressive games.
Stars & Stripes beat Britain's GBR Challenge 4-1 in its quarterfinal series, losing race one only because of a pre-start penalty. It swept the next four races by an average margin of more than a minute.
``Stars & Stripes are a tough teams but if we can't do well against them now we can't do well against them in two weeks,'' Ratliffe said.
His comments seemed to indicate OneWorld's concern that Stars & Stripes are a team rapidly gaining in confidence and drawing more speed from USA-77. For that reason they consider it safer to strike them now than in a possible semifinal starting Dec. 9.
Ratliffe said Prada, Victory and Stars & Stripes all had obvious strengths.
``We could have made the decision with a coin toss and we could rationalize it until the cow's come home. The truth is they're all tough teams. Stars & Stripes are a tough group and their boat is quite fast.''
Stars & Stripes and Victory had both indicated their reluctance to be chosen by OneWorld.
``It would make us feel better if they picked someone else but it doesn't make much difference,'' said Victory helmsman Jesper Bank.
``To be honest we've seen quite a performance increase in the Stars & Stripes campaign. I would be a little worried picking Stars & Stripes as they have improved.''
Stars and Stripes helmsman Kenny Read hoped OneWorld would pass over his team, if only for reasons of apparent prestige.
``I kind of agree with Jesper to be honest,'' he said. ``I think we're a little more dangerous right now.
``We don't want to be chosen just for the sake of being chosen. We want them to be chosen. It just doesn't look good if you get chosen as the worst guy.''
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