Bertelli still hopes as Luna Rossa wanes Sailing

by Christopher Clarey - International Herald Tribune

"Never again," Patrizio Bertelli said after the last America's Cup, when all his interest and investment left him farther from the prize than the first time.

But here the silver-haired boss of Prada is again, and though this has been a more pleasant campaign than the last and a much shorter commute from Italy, it now appears quite certain that he will not get the resolution he keeps looking and paying for.

After four races in this Vuitton Cup final, Bertelli's Luna Rossa Challenge has yet to win so much as a single mark against Emirates Team New Zealand.

The New Zealanders, who won by 52 seconds on Tuesday, require just one more victory in the best-of-nine series to secure a grudge match in the America's Cup with Alinghi, the Swiss-based team that raided their sailing talent last time and ended up taking the Cup away.

For Bertelli, it will be back to the drawing board, which is an object that has generated a lot of wealth and clout for him and his wife, Miuccia Prada, over the years as they have built a small leather business into a global taste maker. But America's Cup sailing just may be a tougher game, less subjective game, one where profit margin and style are much less important than winning margin and speed.

"We have a team that proved to be strong through other series, and they certainly didn't forget how to sail overnight," Bertelli said before the race Tuesday.

But they do seem to have forgotten how to get lucky. For the first time in the series, they managed to be in the lead when the boats converged for the first time after the start, correctly predicting a right-hand wind shift in the early stages. But instead of making the moves that would have allowed them to manage that lead, they ended up guessing wrong, avoiding direct conflict with the kiwis and going much too slowly on the long port tack in the second half of the opening leg as the Kiwis grabbed the advantage for good.

"They had a very little separation with not a big shift, and they managed to get bigger pressure than us," said Luna Rossa's Brazilian tactician, Torben Grael. "It's quite disappointing, but obviously they are sailing pretty well and getting all the opportunities. Not much we can say. Just congratulate Team New Zealand for sailing pretty well."

Bertelli is not ready to concede, but his view in the chase boat has not been pleasant in this round after all the joy his team brought him in its semifinal upset of BMW Oracle Racing.

Once viewed as an interloper, Bertelli is now an established part of the Cup's scenery. This is his third straight challenge for sailing's most prestigious prize, and though it is still not his full-time occupation, it remains his obsession.

"The America's Cup is not logical," he said. "It's the utmost expression of something that's not rational and maybe that's why it's so appealing to everybody."

Bertelli's regular job continues to be running Prada. The fashion empire has surrendered territory since the last Cup in 2003, selling off the Jil Sander and Helmut Lang brands. This is the first time that Bertelli has brought in an outside investor to share the load for a Cup campaign. According to Prada's spokesman, Francesco Longanesi Cattani, this budget is about 85 million, or about $114 million, slightly more than last time, Prada owning 51 percent of the team and Telecom Italia 49 percent.

Perhaps Bertelli's approach to the Cup is more logical than he maintains. He has not been the biggest spender since his first appearance in 2000. He answers carefully when asked whether the estimated $200 million budget that BMW Oracle had at its disposal should now be viewed as a waste.

"The America's Cup is not something you win with money," he said. "It takes the right budget, but to have unlimited access to whatever idea and whatever budget is too messy to manage."

With this campaign running smoothly until this round, it remains unclear whether Bertelli, now 61, is mellowing.

"The way he dismissed Doug Peterson during the last Cup was very tough," said Bruno Trouble, the longtime impresario of the Vuitton Cup.

Peterson was Prada's lead designer (yachts that is) for the last campaign and was very unceremoniously relieved of his duties after a loss in the opening race. The team failed to get past the semifinals of the challenger series: quite a comedown from the first appearance in Auckland in 2000 when they reached the America's Cup match.

"We spent our money badly last time," Bertelli said.

"This campaign feels more like the first campaign," he said. "We're going to see what happens of course, but we have no regrets. We didn't not test anything we wanted to test."

The yacht they designed is unusually boxy with a comparatively flat bottom and comparatively vertical sides. There are now doubters about its inherent speed and big doubts about its tacking capacity in light winds. "We're not slow, but we're not a rocket," Grael said Tuesday. "And I think it's certainly tacking that the boat doesn't like too much in the light stuff. We hope we have a bit bigger conditions tomorrow."

But Bertelli, who was deeply involved in the design process, is convinced his team is blazing the right trail. "People say this class of boats is at its limits, but I don't really think it's true," he said. "I'm convinced that at the next America's Cup we will have boxier boats than we do now."

"We didn't lose because of boat speed; I don't think so," Bertelli said. "Crossing ahead on the first cross is really what matters in this racing."

Win or more probably lose, Bertelli, one of the Cup's strong personalities, has strong ideas about the Cup's future. He is against staging it in two years time, preferring the longer, traditional cycle. "Two years would take a lot away from this sense of adventure and of the feeling of an exceptional event," he said.

Even though Bertelli has used his own campaigns as a branding tool for Prada, he believes the Cup needs to re-emphasize competition over commercialism. To that end, he believes the preliminary regattas called "the Acts" that were introduced this time to help spark interest and sponsorship should continue but should serve as a qualifying process for the Vuitton Cup.

"Sift out eight or 10 challengers," he said. "That would draw a lot of interest, because it would mean the Acts aren't just a promotional thing. They would be a true sporting event."

Above all, he wants the challengers to regain more control over their own regatta, which is being run this time by America's Cup Management, an allegedly independent entity created by the defender Alinghi. "It's O.K. to have an umbrella organization; it makes a lot of sense, but it shouldn't be managed by the defender," he said.

Becoming the defender would certainly make it easier to implement his ideas, but Bertelli seems stuck in challenger mode. "We're building things brick by brick," Bertelli said. "Remember, it took four campaigns for Team New Zealand to finally win the America's Cup."