Word: venezia
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...contending vessels in 1989, technology became more important than ever as teams scrambled to build a qualifying boat that would respect the rules and still win races. New technology doesn't come cheap. The two boats competing in the finals -- America 3 from the U.S. and Il Moro di Venezia from Italy -- have together devoured $160 million in development costs. The millionaires funding these efforts, American energy entrepreneur William Koch and Italian businessman Raul Gardini, are hoping their largesse will pay off in the best-of-seven finals that began last weekend...
...hull design is done with model boats in water tanks. Computers can monitor the various ways in which the boat interacts with the water and help designers build prototypes based on the results. The Italians ran scores of tests in a 400-m (437-yd.) tank to fashion the Venezia's hull. America 3's designers did their research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University to come up with a longer, narrow-bowed hull, meant to slice through the choppy seas expected at San Diego...
Once all these features come together in the form of a full-size boat, the designer's job is just beginning. Prototypes are built, tested, stripped down and used to build better prototypes. Even the finished model is never left alone. Both the Venezia and the America 3 were overhauled yet again before the finals began. The U.S. boat's keel, fin and rudder were removed and adjusted for the calmer weather that has been prevailing around San Diego. "We recognized that we were a bit susceptible in those conditions," says Phil Kaiko, one of the boat's designers...
...Koch's craft 4 to 2 in a best-of-13 final at the end of last week. In the challenger series, to decide which foreign entry will face the Americans on May 9, the New Zealand enjoyed a 4-to-1 lead over Italy's Il Moro di Venezia (pictured above with the red spinnaker in an early round against the Kiwis...
Racial incidents are now commonplace. In May, Somalians demonstrated in Rome's Piazza Venezia to protest overcrowding and poor housing. A shelter for immigrants near the Colosseum was burned last January, and in December two gypsies were shot and killed at their campsite in Bologna. Under tougher immigration laws that went into effect last year, Italy expelled more than 6,000 illegal immigrants and turned back 13,435 from its borders in the first four months of this year...