Sailing Syndicate Remains Unbeaten

Sunday, October 20th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) _ Unbeaten after eight opening-round races, Seattle's OneWorld Challenge is under no illusions the streak will continue in the second round of challenger racing for the America's Cup.

``I think the challenge for OneWorld is really to go out there and continue what we've been doing,'' Australian skipper Peter Gilmour said Monday.

``That being said, the law of averages also works heavily against you in terms of being able to maintain a winning streak or a losing streak. Anything can happen in this game.

``We have no expectation of going through (unbeaten) and no false illusions of our performance relative to other boats. We're just a well-prepared campaign and in the first round-robin that showed out.''

Racing in the second round-robin begins Wednesday. On Tuesday, two Italian syndicates _ Prada and Mascalzone Latino _ will meet in a race deferred from the first round.

For the Oracle Challenge of San Francisco, once again under the daily supervision of its backer Larry Ellison, the challenge will be to lift its performance to the level of pre-regatta expectations.

Oracle lost three of eight matches in the first round, slipping behind OneWorld and Switzerland's Team Alinghi into third place in the challenger standings.

Oracle took a gamble with the configuration of race yacht USA-76 before the first round, setting up the boat to perform best in a higher wind range. USA-76 appeared to lose competitiveness, particularly downwind, in more varied conditions.

Oracle, like most teams, has made configuration changes between rounds and now hopes to match the performance of their leading rivals.

``We've made some changes, yes, not major,'' skipper Peter Holmberg said. ``We'll be using 76 again and the changes were all planned in advance so we used the break as best we wanted to get some sailing in.''

Stars & Stripes, representing the New York Yacht Club, will sail USA-66 in the second round as they did in the first, shunning the remodeled USA-77.

The later yacht has been fitted with a new bow section after sinking off Long Beach, Calif. in mid-July. Helmsman Ken Read said a lack of testing time, rather than a lack of confidence in USA-77's structural integrity, was behind the decision to use USA-66 for the second time.

Several teams made extensive changes to their boats between rounds. Prada's ITA-74 hit the water Sunday with a reshaped bow.

The Italian team dismissed its American-born design director Doug Peterson after only one race in the first round after reported differences of opinion over boat development. Prada's ITA-74 and ITA-80 were the only boats in Auckland initially not fitted with the double-knuckle bow pioneered by Team New Zealand in 2000.

Team members worked around the clock between rounds to alter ITA-74 while ITA-80 remains at an Auckland boatyard, undergoing extensive modification.

``We did some work in different areas this week,'' said skipper Francesco de Angelis. ``I don't believe just one feature can change everything.''

Only one team, Sweden's Victory Challenge, has changed boats between rounds, deciding to sail SWE-73 (Orm) in place of SWE-63 (Orn).

``We believe it's a faster boat and I guess we will all see in round-robin two whether that is true or not but we all have confidence in the boat,'' helmsman Magnus Holmberg said

The French team Le Defi, winless after round one, planned major changes between rounds. But not everything has gone to plan.

Le Defi apparently attempted to change its stern section but had to abandon the attempt when bad weather cut into testing time.