Prada's Luna Rossa won the Louis Vuitton challenger series, beating 10 boats from six other countries, but was trounced 5-0 in the 30th America's Cup by defender Team New Zealand.

The New Zealanders won the series last Thursday, becoming the first nation other than the United States to retain the 149-year-old silver jug.

Prada has already submitted a challenge for the next America's Cup, which starts with a challenger series in late 2002.

Prada spokeswoman Alessandra Ghezzi said Monday that syndicate chief Patrizio Bertelli had acquired two yachts from Young America, including the USA53 -- which buckled and almost sank during the challenger series in November.

"The idea is to have two boats in Italy and two boats in New Zealand for the next two years," she said. "We take both Luna Rossa back to Italy and will start training again in June in Punta Ala before coming back to Auckland later in the year."

Buying the two boats "will cut down on costs of shifting boats from one end of the world to the other and will also cut down on dead time for shipping," she added.

Young America never recovered from the near-sinking in November and failed to make the challenger semifinals. But the Bruce Farr-designed yacht was repaired and has been sailed in the meantime.

Until the incident, USA53 was among the fastest boats in the challenger fleet and only lost to Luna Rossa in the first round when a shackle broke and the crew lost control of its spinnaker near the finish line.