Paul Cayard skippered the U.S. boat to a slim nine-second win Wednesday, holding off a late charge by Prada of Italy and tying the best-of-9 series 3-3. At one point, he trailed 3-1.

	In the final leg Wednesday, AmericaOne, left, rebuffed every maneuver by Prada, which appeared to be gaining at the end.

"Things happen in sailboat races and we got to a score that wasn't exactly the score we were hoping for," Cayard said, "but it didn't mean we're out of it."

Just because he's lost the last two races, Prada helmsman Francesco de Angelis isn't conceding anything with the match tied at 3.

"You just have to think like you have these three wins in a row," he said. "We still have some races to go. It will be tough."

Race 7 is scheduled for Thursday in the series that will decide the opponent for defending champion New Zealand in the best-of-9 America's Cup final beginning Feb. 19.

Wednesday's race was the closest of the round.

AmericaOne won the start in the first five races but was tied when the boats crossed the starting line Wednesday. Then Prada surged ahead, leading at the end of the first two legs of the six-leg course by 20 and 17 seconds.

AmericaOne tactician John Kostecki "did a nice job of orchestrating the comeback," Cayard said, "and all the guys did an awesome job doing their job under pressure."

AmericaOne moved ahead at the end of the third and fourth legs by a slim 16 and 7 seconds. Three of the legs go into the wind and the other three have the wind coming from behind.

Then came the last two legs of the 18½-mile course, one into the wind, the final one with a strong breeze of about 20 knots pushing the boats. Those legs covered 6¼ miles. AmericaOne sailed them just two seconds faster. It maintained its seven-second lead at the fifth mark.

"So far I think the Italians have felt like they probably operate the boat a little smoother than we do," Cayard said, "but I think we might have turned the cards on that today."

Steffi Graf, who participated in a tennis exhibition in Auckland this week, joined AmericaOne's 16-man crew on board as "the 17th man," an honorary role each boat can fill for a non-sailor to watch the race.

"It's as thrilling as can be," Graf said. "That race was incredible."

"She was just very ecstatic," Cayard said. "She was just as she would have been had she won the fifth set of a very tight tennis match."

Prada won the first race by 24 seconds and AmericaOne took the second by 1 minute, 33 seconds. AmericaOne withdrew because of equipment problems with less than one-third of the next race left. And it lost the fourth race even though it edged Prada by a half boat length because it had to make a 270-degree penalty turn for blocking Prada's path in the final minute. Prada won by 2:32.

The Italians' biggest problem Wednesday came at the start of the third leg after it took down its spinnaker. Part of that sail got caught on the rudder and keel beneath the boat, and a crewman struggled to free it with a pole. He leaned far over the port side for several minutes, held by a teammate.

"We survived until the bottom mark, but then when we had to go upwind it was painful," de Angelis said. "The boat was going sideways."

"This stuff's bad when it gets on the rudder, isn't it, Francesco?" Cayard joked. "Our stuff just goes away, like toiler paper."

AmericaOne had damaged spinnakers in nine of its other 44 races, but on Wednesday it took the lead for good as Prada struggled to fee the spinnaker cloth.

Cayard had a problem on the fifth leg with an override on the primary winch, which hampered his boat's turning ability. Then came the thrilling final leg.

"You want to try to come back and force the boat ahead into making a mistake," de Angelis said. "You try to attack."

Cayard, a more experienced match racer, battled closely for the entire 3¼ miles with the wind filling the spinnakers. AmericaOne rebuffed every maneuver by Prada, which appeared to be gaining at the end.

Since falling behind 2-1, AmericaOne has led at 16 of 18 marks and has won two of three starts as Cayard tries to duplicate his comeback of 1992.