To skipper Paul Cayard and his San Francisco-based AmericaOne crew, it's an ugly sight.

	AmericaOne had to deal with one of its many damaged spinnaker's in its race on Saturday.

The sail is the spinnaker, which powers the boat when the wind comes from behind. But if it breaks, it can't fill properly and billow out in front of the yacht. That's when it flies freely and the crew has no time to admire the view. It must react quickly by changing it or using tactics to make the best of the mishap.

AmericaOne is getting plenty of practice.

It had spinnaker damage in four of the first five races of the best-of-9 America's Cup challenger final against Prada of Italy.

AmericaOne had no spinnaker problems in its nine-second win Wednesday that tied the series 3-3. But in the 45 previous races during the trials, AmericaOne damaged nine spinnakers.

Why?

Maybe it's the color of the sail, or the way the crew handles it or the material it's made of. Or a combination of the three.

"Obviously, what AmericaOne thinks is it's the handling of the sail, otherwise they would have done something by now to change it," Tom Dodson, managing director of North Sails New Zealand, said Wednesday. "They wouldn't be silly enough to keep using faulty cloth."

Like most of the other 10 syndicates that started the challenger competition last October, AmericaOne's spinnakers are made of nylon. Prada is the only team using Cuben fibre, made of spectra cloth and developed for Bill Koch's successful America3 (America Cube) campaign in 1992 off San Diego.

"They cost about $60,000 each," Cayard said. The Italians "bought all the production for that cloth through (the end of) the America's Cup. It's probably a lot more than they need. They just took it out of action" for the other syndicates.

"Prada's the only syndicate that has Cuben fibre," Dodson said, "but every other syndicate's carrying spinnakers in plenty of wind and they're not breaking."

Prada is a much better financed campaign, but skipper Francesco de Angelis joked that AmericaOne may have to buy more spinnakers than Prada to account for losing some, although the sails can be repaired.

"The cloth is cloth which is on the market, which is available. You just have to find the cloth that you like," de Angelis said. "Yes, it is expensive, but you buy one and save money. It's better than buying six or seven."

Maybe Cayard should stick to basic white, since the spinnaker can be weakened in the coloration process.

Prada and defending champion New Zealand, which meets the winner of the current round in the best-of-9 America's Cup final, both use white spinnakers.

North Sails makes sails for all three teams, but they must be made in the country the boat represents. New Zealand's are made of nylon in the company's Auckland sail loft, where Dodson works.

"A few years ago, we had problems with some fluorescent-type colors, but they were more of a brighter color that what AmericaOne is using," Dodson said. "The hunch I had when they kept breaking their sails is maybe they've had cloth that's been dyed too much, but after looking at it more closely, it could be a range of things."

Like the way the crew handles the sails.

Cayard said one spinnaker damaged in the challenger final may have been caught on the hatch. Another, he said, might have gotten a small hole by being nicked on the rigging.

The way the boat is steered in relation to the wind also could put too much pressure on the spinnaker, causing it to snap.

In one race, a spinnaker broke loose at the bottom and fluttered from the top of the mast. In another, it split horizontally. In a third, AmericaOne won despite a spinnaker that ripped near the bottom.

Three of the six legs on the 18½-mile course, including the last one, are downwind, when the spinnakers are used. Imagine Cayard leading as he approaches the finish line only to see his spinnaker burst and de Angelis sail past AmericaOne.