SAILING - AMERICA'S CUP: Italy bade "arrivederci" to an increasingly bitter America's Cup in Auckland yesterday as holders Team New Zealand (TNZ) accused its challengers of cheating by copying a revolutionary boat design.

In a day to rival the most dramatic in the 152-year history of sport's oldest trophy, with TNZ claiming other teams were copying its false-hull innovation, the Prada team's challenge ran out of puff because of unfavourable weather conditions.

Three syndicates are left to compete for the Louis Vuitton Cup which gives the winner the right to take on TNZ for the America's Cup in February.

Alinghi have already qualified for the Louis Vuitton finals next month while two US syndicates, OneWorld and Oracle, begin a repechage semi-final on Friday.

The challenger series has already been hit by controversy with OneWorld narrowly escaping expulsion after being caught with sensitive design information about a rival team.

An arbitration panel last week imposed a one-point penalty on OneWorld for possessing boat design secrets from other teams in the latest chapter of a long-running spying saga. The same penalty will be levied against OneWorld at each remaining stage.

Prada skipper Francesco de Angelis sailed out to the Hauraki Gulf yesterday morning knowing that it had to win the two races on the card to survive for a sudden-death run-off today against OneWorld.

But the weather gods did not smile kindly on the Italians and they waited on a millpond for nearly six hours before winning the first race but ran out of time for the second.

It was a tearful scene as watched by hundreds the Italians made a last return to the downtown Viaduct Basin, their home of nearly four years.

De Angelis said he would like another crack at the America's Cup.

"I hope we have another chance, but we'll see," de Angelis said, adding that he did not blame the weather for his team's exit.

"I think the problem was to find ourselves in a situation where you don't control your destiny," he said.

The day's other drama was TNZ's challenge to other teams over their biggest secret - a false hull which is believed to add speed to the boat.

Hull design rules are strict but allow for appendages - and TNZ have realised that there was no limit on appendages that do not move. The radical second skin effectively lengthens the hull, so the boat sails faster.

TNZ claim rivals are copying the ploy on their non-racing boats and have called for organisers to prevent challengers from using their non-racing craft. If they press their claim the competition is headed to the courts.

Speaking to reporters Alinghi skipper Russell Coutts said a false hull concept had been considered by their designers two years ago but they had decided "probably unwisely" that the rules would not allow it.

They were now urgently working on a false hull and it was showing potential, he said, adding the idea was basically a way to get around rules which prohibited hollows in hull lines.

"We regard ourselves as being reasonably fortunate because our design team had done a fair bit of thinking about it in the early days," Coutts said.

"Certainly the design we've got we think has got potential and we're out there testing it now."